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EUROPE 



AFTER 



THE CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 
FORMING THE SEQUEL 



TO THE 



CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 



M. BE PRdDT, 

rOBMEKlT ARCHBISHOP OP In:£CHLI^^ 



PUBLISHED AT PARIS, 1819. 



TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES, 

BY GEORGE ALEXJiJ^DER OTIS. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PUBLISHED BY M. CAREY £sf SON, 

IS-O. 126, CHESNXJT STREET. 

1820. 



BaSTEHN DiSTRIC-F of PENNSTtVAiriA, TO WIT : 

Be it BEMEMBEBEi), That on the eighteenth day of February , in the 

forty-fourth year of the Jndepejideiice of the United States of 

fSEAl-.] Amenca, A. D. 1820, M. Caret & Sox, of the said distn^ict, have 

deposited in this office the title of a book, the right luhereof they 

claim as proprietors, in the -words folloioing, to -wit : 

" Europe after the Congress of Aix-la- Chapelle. Forming the Sequel 
to the Congress of Vienna. By M. De Pradt, formerly Archbishop 
of Mechlin. Published at Paris, 1819. Translated, with JVates, by 
George Alexander Otis.'" 

In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, intituled 
^' An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, 
charts, and books, to the axithors and proprietors of such copies during the 
times therein mentioned.'''' And also to the act, entitled, "An act supple- 
mentary to an act, entitled ' An act for tlie encouragement of learning, by 
securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprie- 
tors of such copies during the times tlierein mentioned,^ and extending the 
benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical 
and other prints." 

D. CALDWELL, 
Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania . 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Preface, , . . . ix 

Chap. I. — Conduct of Europe with respect to 

France, from 1813 to 1818, . . 1 

Chap. II. — General Observations. — General Po- 
litical Order of Europe, . . 19 
Russia, . . . . 24 
Sweden, . . . .32 
Denmark, ... 38 
Kingdom of the Netherlands, . 43 
Prussia, ... 55 
Austria, . . . .64 
German Empire, . . 73 
France, . . . .81 
Chap. III. — Ancient System of France on the 

Continent, . . . .91 

Part II. — JVew System of France on the Conti- 

tinent, . . . . 130 

Chap. IV. — Division of the South of Europe; 

Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, . 144 

Chap. V. — Comparison of the Ancient Political 

Order with the New, . . 169 

Chap. VI. — Spirit of the Existing Policy, 180 



J-y PREFACE. 

Page 

Chap. VII. — General Affairs to corner , 203 
Chap, yill.— 'Declarations o^ the Congress of 

AiX'la-Chapelle, . . . 210 

Chap. IX.—Spirit of the People of Europe, 219 

Chap. X. — Great Permanent Armies, — Public 

Debts, . ... 235 

Constitutional Question on the Evacuation of 
France. .... 263 



NOTICE. 

THE translator believes he cannot more accepta- 
bly offer his first respects to the public than by pre- 
senting to their notice a distinguished stranger, M. 
De Pradt. As a Frenchman, it will excite no sur- 
prise if he should speak our language with a foreign 
accent; but his ideas at least will not be found pro- 
vincial. It has been objected to his present work, 
that he discovers in it " a silly admiration of Eng- 
land." How far this is well founded the reader will 
be his own judge. He will naturally take into view 
the vicinity of England to the continent; and will 
perceive, that a power which, at this distance, ex 
cites no terror, may still be sufficiently formidable 
across the channel. It will also be considered that the 
writer addressed himself particularly to the people of 
France, who are remarkable for being more affected 
by results, than by principles; by their senses, than 
by reasonings; he wrote soon after the evacuation of 
France by foreign troops; at a time when the Ultras 
were in power, resisted the execution of the Charter, 
and opposed all constitutional government. England 
was in view; had shared in the triumph at Waterloo, 
and gained all her objects in the war of the French 
revolution; M. De Pradt attributes all her successes 
and prosperity to a free constitution. The greater and 
better the effects, the greater and better the cause. 
To persuade his countrymen not to remit their efforts 



VI 

to accomplish the entire and practical establishment 
of such a constitution, he points to England as an 
example of its salutary results; he presents a bold 
outline of her power and prosperity; but refers it all 
to the revolution of 1688. To gain proselytes for 
the worship of Liberty, he adorns her temple with 
paintings that glow with the rich tints of a brilliant 
imagination; and erects her statue colossal like her 
own magnificent proportions. In the character of her 
Apostle, he employs parables, and hyperboles, that 
startle while they instruct. Our country, if not the 
cradle, and the sole temple of this divinity, is at least 
her chosen asylum; and, since it welcomes the pil- 
grims, cannot frown at the devotion, of the European 
world. The views here attributed to M. De Pradt, 
are expressly avowed by one of the ablest advocates 
of the same creed that Europe has produced. " I 
am well pleased," says this writer,* "to hear the 
praises of the English constitution. I have always 
believed the English to have been indebted principally 
to this constitution for the possession of those quali- 
ties which have procured them the consideration of 
Europe. Now, without any disposition to depreciate 
the merit of a people who, for a period of one hun- 
dred and thirty-two years, have held forth great ex- 
amples to the world, my conviction is, that if a free 
constitution has been followed with such good effects, 
in this instance, the French have a right to expect 
still better from a similar cause. Are not our re- 
sources more real, our climate more desirable, our 
manners more polished, our affections more gentle, 
and less personal, our minds more flexible, and active, 

* B. Constant. 



Vll 

our character more hospitable? If, notwithstanding, 
liberty has given the English, for a period of more 
than a century, an elevated rank among nations, 
liberty will render to the French the rank assigned 
them by nature." 

If, after all, the panegyric of England be a dainty 
too luscious for certain fastidious palates, they are in- 
vited to season it with a condiment prepared by the 
same hand. 

The posthumous work of Madame de Stael, like 
this of M. de Pradt, contains an elaborate eulogium 
of England, and of her constitution; her indulgent 
critic retrenches from it but a single epithet; he is not 
sure that the constitution of which she speaks can be 
called "the actual constitution of England." Cir- 
cumstances have much changed it. 1 see frequent 
suspensions of the habeas corpus act; the system of 
spies openly avowed, as a legitimate instrument of 
government; the alien bill perpetually renewed; retro- 
active, and consequently unjust, measures, adopted 
to secure its execution. I see the opposition feeble; 
elections becoming every day more openly corrupt; 
the traffic for seats in parliament ceasing to be scan- 
dalous, so regular is the operation, and their current 
price so accurately defined; and, were it not for the 
press, which survives, thanks to the habit and tradi-^ 
tion of a secular liberty, I should be ready to exclaim, 
in speaking of this constitution, which excited the 
envy of Voltaire, and the admiration of Montesquieu, 

STAT MAGNI NOMINIS UMBRA. 



PREFACE. 



THE Congress of Vienna has given to Europe 
her new political Charter. That of Aix-La-Chapelle 
has pledged the solemn faith of Europe to the internal 
tranquillity of France, and given her a kind of certifi- 
cate of qualification to govern herself and to walk 
without aid. Thereby every thing is restored to the 
ordinary and accustomed order between states. From 
that time the political machine of Europe is found to 
be perfectly re-established. All its parts are distinctly 
perceived ; we can measure their proportions and re- 
ciprocal relations ; it is mounted, and it remains only 
to indicate how, according to the nature of things, it 
may be expected to play. This is what we have at- 
tempted to demonstrate in the following pages. The 
time of mutual felicitations, as well as that of public 
rejoicings, is past. It was the honey-moon of diplo- 
macy. The season has arrived for reflections and se- 
rious occupations ; the subject will reward the trouble. 
Each, on returning home, endeavours to arrange him- 
self there ; to fortify his weak points, and to profit by 
his natural or adventitious advantages. An eagerness 
will be discovered to form alliances, the same as in 
times past. Already we hear of divers systems rela- 
tive to connexions of this nature. The rpoment has 



X PREFACE. 

appeared to us favourable for examining this important 
subject with a prospect of utility. It is connected 
with another which we have already treated ; or ra- 
ther, it is merely its continuation. We refer to the 
treatise on the Congress of Vienna. 

The truth of some views, which we ventured to 
publish at that epoch, appears to be now generally 
admitted. We then indicated two principal points of 
the European policy, as being at the same time its 
regulators — and its defects. 1. The supremacy of 
Russia and England. 2. The inconveniences of the 
transportation of part of the Prussian monarchy to 
between the Rhine and the Meuse ; and the subjec- 
tion of Italy to Austria. 

Public opinion appears to have confirmed these 
views ; and if we call them to mind in this place, it is 
not that we desire to display them as titles of glory, 
but as letters of credence which we present to esta- 
blish confidence and legitimate our mission. We pro- 
ceed in this part of our speculations as in those we 
have hazarded on the Colonies, 

When South America discovered symptons of ap- 
proaching agitations, we called the attention of the 
public to the exploit she was about to achieve : when 
her career had commenced, we supported our prog- 
nostics relative to its approaching, and inevitable ter- 
mination, by reference to predictions made at the mo- 
ment when she declared herself. In these two cases 
truth upon the past is summoned to testify for the 
future. We have been obliged to labour on a sub- 
ject absolutely new; the product of circumstances 
heretofore unknown in the diplomatic order. Nothing 
is more important than to form a just idea of the poli- 



PREFACE. XI 

tical state of Europe ; for where all is new, all like- 
wise needs to be explored ; and as in representative 
government, all force is derived from opinion, and 
from without the government, it is essential to en- 
lighten this opinion fully, that it may always be qualf- 
fied to discharge its office — that of redressing thfe 
false steps that may escape the administration; the 
latter cannot see all, and its fairest privilege consists 
in the power of realising useful ideas, which others 
can only conceive. 

In England, public policy is discussed in all parts 
of the country; in all the publications that are circu- 
lated daily, and thus opinion never remains inactive, 
whether as the occupation of citizens, or as their or- 
gan. At every instant it is challenged to act and to 
declare itself; — and at every instant, it does so. Thus, 
in England, it is rare to see the government make false 
steps, and when it occurs, the fault is immediately 
perceived, exposed, and corrected. England owes 
the height of her prosperity to the activit}^ and even 
severity, of this control. It compels the government 
to form for itself a system and adhere to it. Whereas, 
in France, policy has almost always been an occult 
science : immersed in the interior of a sanctuary im- 
penetrable to all except the divers winds which have 
blasted the system with perpetual mobility. France 
accordingly, has never had a steady system. Under 
Napoleon it centered in him alone ; fashioned like its 
author's own proportions, gigantic and eccentric like 
him. 

Then all was commanded; since 1814, all has 
been, as it were, obeyed. We must lay to the charge 
of the times, and there leave, the necessity of this pain- 



XU PREFACE. 

ful transition. But, at length, this cup of bitter de- 
gradation should be exhausted ; it seems that it has 
been drank to the dregs. It is quite time to resume 
the attitude natural to a great country, and alone wor- 
thy of it. With greater power than many others, 
France has not less right to her own direction than 
all in general — than each in particular, — ^have to their 
own. For states, independence is the first good, and 
the common good. The system of France is the 
most simple and the most inoffensive that can be con- 
ceived ; the maintenance of peace towards all — inde- 
pendence for herself — and the avoidance of all con- 
nexion with others. Whoever causes her to deviate 
from this route, will lead her a false course and com- 
promise her dearest interests. 

What is here said with respect to France applies 
equally to other states ; for such is the effect of gene- 
ral principles, and in an order of common interests, 
good can only result from the wisdom of the disposi- 
tions of each part, and from that of the whole, and 
here is a fair application of the axiom — 

Boiium ex Integra causa, malum autem ex minimo defectu. 

In policy, as in every thing else, it is rare that the 
most consoling and the most encouraging should be 
also the most true. The present period, it is to be 
hoped, will furnish a proof of the contrary. Peace, 
and its duration, are two blessings desired by all. We 
have been careful to place the appearances of its soli- 
dity in a favourable light; for the removal of what- 
ever might cause it to be doubted, tends to its confir- 
mation. Conviction has pourtrayed this picture. Con- 
fining ourselves to the examination of certain subjects, 
duty restricts us to that only of the declarations which 



PREFACE. XIU 

emanated from the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. It 
would be as difficult as imprudent to follow the spirit 
of fiction through the infinite variety of combinations 
it has created. 

There is but one point upon which it is permitted 
to dwell without temerity ; and this point is also rela- 
tive to France. We see her admitted, and a party to 
the alliance, of which before, she had been, in a differ- 
ent sense, the original and persevering object. But 
is this alliance entire, definitive, and equal in all its 
points, between her and her allies. Have not the 
patent articles a lining which is kept out of sight, but 
which may be brought to view in case of need? 
Would it not follow that France, in certain cases, 
might become a party against herself : might not a 
convention of Pilnitz of 1792 be concealed behind the 
congress of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1818? The wishes 
of Europe for the well being of France are formal and 
extensive. But, it is too probable, they are attended 
by many fears and distrusts. That which is within 
inspires fear for that which is without, and on this 
ground precautions are believed justifiable. False 
reports may have fomented and increased these appre- 
hensions. Other nations have generally been deceived 
in regard to the spirit of France, and have miscon- 
ceived it. Too often have they received impressions 
from men who know it no better than themselves. 
In 1790, they made sport of what took place in 
France, and viewed it as a mere tumult to be left to 
the care of a few battalions. In 1792 they had alrea- 
dy gone to the opposite extreme ; dejection had taken 
the place of presumption. Under Napoleon, under 
the Directory, they could only negotiate or trehible. 



XIV PREFACE. 

They had never any steady plan; never any judg- 
ment founded on certain bases. Meantime, ought 
the destiny of France to depend on interested sug- 
gestions, or erroneous suppositions? ought the state 
of a great people to be appreciated and regulated ac- 
cording to phantoms created by fear, or disappointed 
ambition? For example, it is too probable that these 
influences have acted upon the allies ; and that they 
have chosen to have apprehensions the very moment 
in which they had just declared to Europe, and to 
France, that all was tranquil. On the supposition that 
they had reserved to themselves the right to pro- 
nounce upon the internal tranquillity of France, and 
to act in consequence — to what would not an inter- 
ference, grounded on false impress' ^s, expose both 
themselves and France ? What^ case, would 

be the place of the fifth ally France, if 

these terrors were to be renews ijbt the 

authors of the former will becom pro- 

pagators of many others, would it . <^re 

was good cause of interference : woul^. ^ 

dictate laws to a great people ; to propose i 
or should suffer a second representation o. 
By what signs would the necessity for this inte. 
be recognised? Would they expose themselves ^ 
hazard of fatiguing a people already quite weary oi 
many humiliations and sufferings, strong in its rights, 
its numbers, its approved courage, and in the great 
example of Poland ? The geographical map does not 
represent France so commodiously situated for parti- 
tions as Poland may have been : she would present 
neither a Russian nor a German faction, nor great 
men sold to Petersburgh and to Berlm. France, like 



PREFACE. XV 

Poland, would not have to expect a king from the 
capricious hands of her spoilers. She possesses 
princes who would remember that their ancestors 
thrice expelled strangers from the soil that supported 
their throne ; and on this occasion would no longer 
listen to evacuation of territory merely by strokes of 
the pen. France has a right to despise all the pictures 
of her position which fear, or fancy, or want of patri- 
otism may dictate. How can they affect her interests ? 
What need has she of others? and to whom is she ac- 
countable? Is she not still the most prosperous state 
of Europe ? With a certain revenue of seven hundred 
millions,* and an augmentation in the product of thir- 
ty millions ; with a free territory ; three hundred mil- 
lions of expenditure diminished (the expense of occu- 
pation) j her fields loaded with harvests ; an exuberant 
population ; an industry increasing with giant strides ; 
a commerce free to spread its sails towards every part 
of the universe ; and, in the midst of this apparatus of 
wealth, and as if to give it greater activity, a rigid 
observance of the laws on the part of all; citizens liv- 
ing together in harmony ; the public roads without 
danger; justice without obstacle in the execution of 
its decrees ; taxes paid without delay ; — in such a 
state, what has France to fear for herself, or what have 
others to fear from her? What is there to fear for a. 
throne surrounded by an army ; supported by the two 
branches of the legislature ; always ready to put in 
: notion all the forces of the nation to sustain this 
throne, from which flow, as from an inexhaustible 
fountain, and gush as it were, all the advantages of 

* Of frailcs 



XVI PREFACE. 

honours and interests to which all the citizens aspire? 
Where could a commotion spring up in a country 
covered by the agents of authorit}% named by itself, 
and responsible to itself alone? How ridiculous are 
the terrors raised by these men who go about repre- 
senting France as impregnated with a demagogue 
spirit, because in some places names stamped by pub- 
lic attention have been nominated anew ; as if this re- 
sult of the struggle of parties were not in the essence 
of representative government; as if the choice of a 
people were any thing else than the expression of 
their well being, or of their sufferings, and an invo- 
cation to guarantees ; or of vengeance for severities 
endured; as if the candidates were not enlightened 
men, friends of their country, discreet judges of their 
own times, which by all their influences prescribe to 
them a moderation, the germ of which is in their 
hearts, as the demonstration of its necessity is in their 
intelligence ! What meant these men who went about 
scattering cries of alarm, and represented democracy 
as invading France, anew, and menacing thrones, be- 
cause they had been disappointed in the result of a 
few assemblies? But, in these assemblies, has a sin- 
gle word been uttered against the throne, against the 
public order, against any citizen; has anyone seen 
Spafield meetings, as in England? Have Paris and 
France copied these foul orgies, whose disgusting 
spectacle changing London and England into a vast 
field of licence has scandalised Europe, and justified 
Rousseau in saying of the English that " their man- 
ner of using liberty, during the few instants in which 
they exercised it, proved them litde worthy of it." 
There exist no troubles and disorders except in the 



PREFACE. XVU 

heads of some dark or ambitious characters, who 
create these phantoms to take advantage of them and 
cause themselves to be reputed necessary. 

At the conckision of these excesses in England, 
have we seen any proposition for suspending popular 
elections, or for changing their regulation? As if fewer 
than a hundred thousand citizens, invited to exercise 
this right in a country peopled with thirty millions of 
men, did not resemble a strong aristocracy, rather 
than a democracy; as if this limitation were not the 
most satisfactory solution of the problem that has 
always agitated societies — the participation of public 
powers. The English ministers, when the storm 
bursts forth, like experienced pilots, think not of 
weakening or cutting loose the anchor that fastens the 
vessel to the shore, but they strive to strengthen the 
anchor of mercy, the constitution ; they ascend to its 
principles instead of suspending it. In France, on 
the contrary, raw sailors, the moment the surface of 
the waters is ruffled, think of nothing but cutting the 
cable; abandoning the vessel to the surges which, 
coming in succession, will drift it and dash it to pieces. 
Fine means to introduce tranquillity into the minds 
and assemblies of a people to deprive it of its rights ! 
Will the foreigners think they have the right to inter- 
fere, because this people shall resent with vivacity the 
presumption that has had the power to make it fear 
the interruption of its inheritance by the suspension 
of its right to choose its representatives in uninter- 
rupted succession? 

We can never be enough astonished at the pre- 
sumptuous ignorance that could have inspired a simi- 
lar resolution. Its authors were doubtless ignorant — 



XVm PREFACE. 

but France knew, that the renewal of representation 
by re-election is for a people what natural inheritance 
is for the prince and the peers. The people must be 
represented ; it can only be represented by election ; 
this is its mode of inheritance ; to interrupt it is to de- 
stroy it; to continue it without the people, is to give 
it a life, the principle of which is not in itself; to sus- 
pend it, is to create a chasm in an existence, the 
thread of which drops from the hand; to dispose of it 
in any way, is to thrust usurpation into its legitimacy : 
each branch of the legislature has its own, indepen- 
dent of that of others. And if die throne or the peers 
should arrogate to themselves the right to violate the 
inheritance of the people, would they not have a pa- 
rallel right over the inheritance of the two other par- 
ties ? When it shall be attempted to suspend the one, 
it will be necessary to do the same for the others. 
Similar notions can have no existence except in heads 
impregnated with the inhuman prejudices that na- 
tions, the sources of all rights, live on the contrary 
without rights, restricted to the precarious enjoyment 
of those which have been condescendingly conceded 
them. These men ought, before they form these 
conspiracies, to persuade themselves intimately of 
this truth — that in human societies there is nothing- 
substantial but nations themselves ; and that all the 
rest is only artificial ; — mere combinations adopted by 
them for their better administration. 

The reflections suggested by such thoughts would 
lead to infinity. France has furnished against her 
enemies, — for such speculators are nothing less, — an 
answer far superior to any that could be added ; this 
country, so near to troubles and commotions, has 



PREFACE. XIX 

maintained the calmest of attitudes during- the sus- 
pension of government, while its fate was under de- 
liberation, waiting w^ith respect and silence the deci- 
sion of him to whom the law^s have resigned the right 
to choose the agents of his government. Such is the 
force of public reason, enlightened and directed by 
the system of representative government, similar to 
those piles destined to support, in the bosom of the 
waters, the pressure of the heaviest structures, which, 
while their head is beaten by a mass of iron, raised 
by a thousand arms, seem at every stroke likely to be 
overthrown or dashed to pieces- — and which do but 
settle more deeply in the earth; the representative 
government will be confirmed by the very shocks 
which may be aimed at its destruction; its eternal 
roots will penetrate to the very centre of the French 
soil, which has remained constitutional and monarchi- 
cal in spite of all that could be said or attempted to 
the contrary. Thus the last attempt against the char- 
ter and its props will tend to its confirmation and du- 
ration. Thus during the session of the constituent 
assembly, each essay renewed periodically, every six 
months, against it, did but increase its power, and 
recoiled upon its enemies. This last example excites 
a more ardent desire that France may see the end of 
all foreign influence. She needs all her liberty to per- 
fect her institutions, to appear, at length, what she 
really is. She respects the liberty of others ; shepre- 
tends to no influence over it ; she maintains no com- 
mittee among them. The law of reciprocity is the 
first of laws between polished societies ; France has 
a clear right to claim it, and with it, as its comple- 
tion, the entire accomplishment of those promises and 



XX PREFACE. 

of that happy and peaceful futurity, of which the 
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle has inspired the hope; 
and which can only result from the most entire en- 
franchisement from all foreign influence. The honour 
of the nation demands it; and since Europe asks of 
her repose, and expects it from her, it is wise to com- 
mence by banishing whatever may wound her; for 
nothing is more certain to interdict repose than 
wounds ; and nothing would wound her more than 
the spectacle or even the suspicion of a foreign pre- 
tension to influence her counsels. Otium cum digni- 
tale — repose and dignity. Such are the aspirations of 
France. Dignity cannot be found without the most 
entire independence. Restricting herself to that, 
France cannot fear to be accused of ambition ; in cir- 
cumstances nearly similar, Louis XIV. repressed 
some haughty expressions which fell from the minis- 
ter of a power that had acquired great advantages in 
the war of the Spanish succession, by saying to him, 
Mr. Ambassador^ I have always been the master at 
home; do not force me to recollect that I have been 
such sometimes amongst others. 



EUROPE 

AFTER THE 

CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Conduct of Europe with respect to France^ from 
1813 to 1818. 

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle may be consi- 
dered as the completion of the general acts in which 
the states of Europe have participated with respect to 
France, since the coalition of 1813. It will also be 
tlieir last general act relative to the domination exer- 
cised by Napoleon over Europe and over France. 
Against him was formed the coalition of 1813; and 
against him, also, in stricter union, its energies were 
directed in 1815. In 1813 it only aspired to restrain 
the power which menaced it ; in 1814, it resolved to 
free itself from its weight; in 1815, its object was en- 
larged; it laboured at the same time to efface the last 
traces of this power ; to render its return impossible ; 
and to shelter itself from new eruptions on the part of 
France. Such were the three objects of the action 
of the coalition at this time; they were distinctly 
perceived. 



Too confident, perhaps, in 1 8 14,Eiirope was, in 18 1 5, 
too distrustful ; at which epoch, she imposed on France 
the penalty of the two-fold imprudence committf»d by 
herself in 1814. 1. That of abandoning the direction 
of her own work to hands that could only mar it, and 
endanger themselves. 2. That of leaving at the gates 
of France, in view of his ancient legions, him, who 
could not fail to act upon them by great recollections, 
and to which he was invited by great interests. In 
expiation of this fault, Europe should have taken on 
herself half of the contribution she has imposed on 
France. She had the imprudence neither to remove 
nor to guard the enemy. Hence all the mischief has 
arisen. It was evident that the Island of Elba could 
be nothing but a watch-tower against the Thuilleries; 
but a magazine of intrigues against the new order of 
France ; and that an interchange of wishes and hopes 
would soon be established between this island and 
France. 

At this day, when all is calm, and the event has 
spoken, such an aberration appears inconceivable on 
the part of statesmen, who had shewn themselves for 
some years more discreet. These are faults such as 
decide at once the fate of men and that of empires. 
But the allies never well understood the strength or 
the weakness of Napoleon. In 1813, at Prague, they 
offered him more than his position exacted. In De- 
cember of the same year, at the moment of the pas- 
sage of the Rhine, they proposed to leave him Bel- 
guim and all the left bank of the Rhine ; and thus paid 
a new homage of terror to a power which already ex- 
isted no more ; for it was at forty leagues only from 
Paris that they met the first battalions of Napoleon, 



in the midst of a people rather a spectator than actor 
in this contest. At Chatillon in 1814, they pressed 
to retain the throne of ancient France him whom 
France permitted to fall from it; because by means of 
having raised himself above, he at last found himself 
separated from her ; and fixing his attention on the 
world entire, it was only by chance, and at intervals 
that his eyes were turned towards her. The allies, 
in 1814 knew not distinctly why they confided in 
France; it was a wrong confidence : in 1815, they 
knew as litde why they doubted her ; it was a wrong 
distrust; they had equally misplaced the elements of 
each; they beheld in 1815 the causes of distrust they 
ought to have perceived in 1814 : and they did not see- 
in 1815 the motives of security which they very erro- 
neously believed they recognised in 1814 : they should 
have trusted in 1815, and distrusted in 1814; for then 
all the elements of this distrust existed and were seen 
everywhere; whereas in 1815, after the explosion, 
they were dissipated. Europe has set herself to 
guard the powder magazine after having left it to 
explode by her negligence. Hard fate of nations, to 
be compelled by turns to pay for the excesses and 
faults of memory of those who direct them. The 
absence of all precaution when all the train of means, 
result and support of Napoleon's power, was still on 
foot, was still seen embodied; and this excess of 
precautions when this formidable mass had been 
crushed in pieces; when the most menacing centre of 
this power strewed the fields of Waterloo ; when the 
chief and the most prominent among his followers, 
were flying or dispersed, or in fine reduced to their 
individualitv: all this contrast of actions with the real 



4 

state of things presented the most deplorable contra- 
diction between what was done and what the position 
indicated ; and proved that then, as well as the pre- 
ceding year, and throughout the course of the revolu- 
tion, the physicians had not well consulted the pulse 
of their patient, and that the forces of the coalition 
were more easily drawn together than their ideas had 
been enlightened. One of the most illustrious com- 
manders of their armies said in 1814, that they had 
never imagined the catastrophe of Napoleon so easy; 
as it entered into the calculations of the coalition that 
it would require three years more to overthrow him ; 
a certain argument that the principle of his weakness 
like that of his force had been equally mistaken by 
his enemies : they combated against him with a sur- 
viving sentiment of the fear he had so long excited. 
So true it is that what is feared once is feared always. 
The coalition believed the fortune of Napoleon at- 
tached to anchors, long since worn out, and he who 
was unable to escape the sword of his enemies, had 
escaped the penetration of their sagacity. The treaty 
of Paris of 1814, had restricted the demands of 
Europe with respect to France, to her reduction with- 
in her ancient limits. Her monuments, her treasures, 
her moveables as her territory, her independence as 
her glory, had been respected. In the language of 
conquerors are ambiguities whose interpretation force 
reserves to itself: and generosity without duplicity 
forms not the vocabulary of victory. In 1815 France 
was therefore doomed to defray the war declared 
and made against Napoleon alone ; there was again a 
treaty of Paris : treaties signed in the capitals of the 
vanquished bode them no good, and France will do 
well henceforth to avoid treaties of Paris. 



The moderation of 1814 gave place to severe ex- 
actions ; the soldiers of Waterloo must lend their aid 
in the spoliations of the museum ;* Barbarians were 
heard to howl around the trophies of France, the 
ornaments of her capital ; and they challenged from 
bronze the glorious emblems which could not be 
wrested from history : they left mutilated triumphal 
arches under the eyes of a people who sought in them 
its titles of glory with an eagerness equal to that which 
had been employed in effacing them: these vacant 
accusers spoke to the eyes of the French as did the 
absence of the statues of Brutus and Cassius to those 
of the Romans. 

At last the torrent of Europe retired from the soil 
of France, loaded as after storms, with the fat of the 
fields; recommending their diligent culture to the 
inhabitants, and reserving to herself a share of their 
fruits. Many went out of France as from an auction 
to which they had come to redeem their furniture. 
Once masters, they gave to the war the direction they 
pleased ; and Bluchers were still more easy to van- 
quish than to refute.f 

The second treaty of Paris left France loaded with 
an immense foreign debt : and as if it were not enough 
to overwhelm her with the expenses of the war, to 
these were added the expense of fears she was no 
longer in a position to justify. For upon a near 
survey it was evident, that neither in her external 
political, nor in her internal order, did she longer 

• Justus Grunner, a modern interpreter of the Apocalypse, who discovered 
in this part »f the New Testament, denunciations applicable to France, and 
the city of Paris ! 

\ Genera! Hlucher was made prisoner at Lubec, in 1807 ; he was defeated 
at the battle of Fleurus or of Ligny, 16 June, 1815, which he acknowledges 
in his own relation ; aad the danger he twice incurred of being made nrisoner. 



present any danger to the peace of Europe, or to her 
own tranquillity : but the expenses of her presumed 
convalescence were taxed at a price as high as those 
of the disease itself. Seven hundred and fifty mil- 
lions for the charge of the war, seven hundred and 
fifty millions for the expense of occupation, with 
five hundred millions, consumed or destroyed 
from the first of March 1815 to the first of January, 
1816, form the balance of this fatal epoch; a cruel 
lesson both for those who come to govern a country 
against the sense of whatever they find in it; and for 
those who, too prompt to be led away by deception, 
irritation and egotism, heed not the precipices which 
open behind them as much for themselves as for 
others ; for the abyss was excavated by hands equally 
inexpert, rash, or interested. The half of the defen- 
sive circumvallation of France, must be given up as 
an observatory from which she might be guarded. 
The principal seat of this guard varied according to 
the seasons ; in summer it was stationed at the dis- 
tance of forty leagues from Paris ; for the winter in 
the centre of the capital. Even some part of the 
territory was ceded to increase the security of a trou- 
blesome neighbour given by the congress of Vienna;* 
the thorns of which then began to be felt. The 
kingdom of the Netherlands needed a direct route to 
some parts of its possessions: France must again 
furnish it by the cession of Philippeville and Marien- 
burgh, destined to bind together all the parts of the 
new state. 

Huninguen paid, by its destruction, for the broken 
slumbers of the inhabitants of Basle ; for there exist- 

• Sarrelouis and some parts between the Sambre and Meuse; 



ed no military reason or political fact to furnish a mo- 
tive for this ruin; and the dismantling of Landau 
opened Alsace, while it secured Germany. Assured- 
ly, on this one occasion, they had no cause to reproach 
themselves with having forgotten either their coffers 
or their securities ; and France paid usurious interests, 
in the distractions of 1814, and the explosion of 1815, 
for a generosity of six months. It would be super- 
fluous, at this hour, to examine the principle of right 
for these exactions ; perhaps, in the discussion, we 
should arrive at a result quite different from what has 
been alleged on either hand. France was placed in 
the worst of all possible situations for discussion j the 
head-quarters of the strangers contiguous to the bar- 
riers of the Louvre ; the state divided ; a part of the 
citizens thinking the rigours exercised against the 
other part always too mild; never content with the 
shame and disgrace stamped on their country till their 
thirst for domination and revenge w^as allayed ; they 
contested nothing with those who procured them these 
gratifications ; the dispositions of this party could only 
appear in the eyes of the stranger as an encourage- 
ment and an apology ; provoker of the violence of the 
stranger, auxiliary of his rigours, admirer of his se- 
verities, contemner of the national glory, the depre- 
ciator of the qualities and the talents which had 
blazed forth in France ; this party, the same that for 
five-and-twenty years had not ceased to demand 
France by the sword of her enemies, at this mo- 
ment would sooner have traced for them the route of 
rigours than have laboured to divert them from it. 
The strangers might have considered themselves less 
bound to respect a country on seeing so many of those 



who appeared at its head more forward than theiti' 
selves in resentments and animosities. 

At that period, contrary to the usual order, France 
Gould not be sustained by her own government; it 
was no longer there her strength lay. Twice rein- 
stated by the foreign powers, the price of service im- 
plored and accepted being neither defined nor regu- 
lated between the nation and the foreigner, between 
the alliance and the enmity, between the restoration 
and spoliation commenced; having no other force 
than that same from whence came the exactions ; si- 
tuated far more unfavourably than in 1814, fearing to 
aggravate the sufferings it witnessed, of which also, 
it might fear being pronounced the author ; admitted 
to sign what it had been useless to discuss, and what 
it wanted power to refuse ; there remained for it but 
one mode of serving France, to give the precept of 
resignation and its own example. For such was the- 
strange constraint of its position ; nor was it for w^hat 
it then did that it had cause of regret, but for what it 
had done at an earlier period, and which had been the 
prelude to these cruel circumstances. For whoever 
attended to what passed in 1814, must have foreseen 
the events of 1815. 

Thus was regulated the fate of France. She re- 
mained under the custody of Europe. It is the first 
example presented in the history of Europe of a simi- 
lar measure, embraced with regard to any state what- 
ever, and executed by common consent. A quaran- 
tine of five years was imposed on her to give time for 
the miasmata called revolutionary to dissipate and be 
replaced by a purer element. The government of 
•France was put to the test; it was desired to have 



the assurance of time for the solidity of its march and 
the regularity of its movements ; the reins were re- 
stored, but they still held the leading strings. If the 
tenth part of these precautions had been taken in 
1814, none of them would have been needed in 1815. 
In this cruel situation, France has discovered two 
ereat forces — that of character, and that of modera- 
tion. She has endured and paid all, without murmur 
and without delay ; and as paying is all, for nations as 
well as individuals : as the discharge of debts is com- 
parative wealth, and the exercise of good faith is the 
key to treasure ; prosperity has returned with her sis- 
ter punctuality, and we have seen the price of deli- 
verance, the subscriptions for which commenced at 
fifty-five, completed at eighty. So true it is, that bur- 
dens are the exclusive portion of bad faith, and that 
good renders them all supportable. But as prosperity 
is a plant, all whose branches are interwoven ; as all 
public prosperity has its origin uniformly in the mea- 
sures of government ; to the system embraced by the 
administration must be attributed especially the heal- 
thy condition of France, and the effects it has pro- 
duced. 

On the 5th of September was prepared the deliver- 
ance recently effected. It is essential not to mistake 
it; the fifth of September has introduced the result 
of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. By the afflicting 
treaty of Paris, the allies had reserved to themselves 
the discretion of pronouncing upon the state of France, 
and to regulate by it the duration of the measures of 
precaution it might require. 

Assuredly had France continued abandoned to the 
pernicious gales that have blown upon her for many 



10 

years, the catastrophes which this fatal direction could 
not fail to produce in the interior would have intro- 
duced others from without. The agitations — what do 
I say? the convulsions of the interior would have pro- 
voked new severities from the hands of the foreigner. 
Men were not wanting, it is natural to suppose, who 
ardently wished it, and who would have returned with 
joy towards pleasures which had appeared too short 
in proportion as their relish had been exquisite and 
their price inconsiderable. Pretexts would not have 
been wanting. But whilst on the one hand we were 
hastening with press of sail to perdition ; on the other, 
the good genius of France, too long absent, approach- 
ed her, and with his tutelary hand, dispersing the 
agents of darkness and of discord, replacing power 
in its true direction, rallying the scattered forces 
around a common centre, he restored a respect for 
authority ; he removed the obstacles that had opposed 
it; he revived hope, confidence, and prosperity; and 
presenting France to Europe, disengaged from what- 
ever might have obscured her, solicited in her behalf 
the termination of rigours become useless, shades of 
terrors without foundation, and causes of irritation, 
grounded on their inutility. Honoured be, therefore, 
the 5th of September, this restoration of restorations ; 
honour to the hands which have given it, which will 
consolidate it, and cause it to triumph over all the de- 
signs of malevolence. Let him who can endure the 
thought, imagine the futurity which its absence or its 
despair would have produced. 

Seeing the alacrity with which France has march- 
ed in its ways, all can judge if it was agreeable to her 
sense, and if it was on this occasion she felt herself 



11 

France again. But for the 5th of September, the ex- 
cellent citizens who in their secret notes so patrioti- 
cally implored the prolongation of the stay of stran- 
gers on the land tiiey were inclined to dispose of, 
would not have had need to recur to this generous 
and loyal step ; for it had been long before any ques- 
tion of evacuating it. At length the hour is arrived, 
and the congress, assembled according to the terms 
of the treaty of Paris, has pronounced it without 
hesitation as without division. 

Here two things should be noticed. The evil was 
done; it dates from 1815, a time of distraction and of 
anger; but an evil, decreed in principle, may be miti- 
gated in the execution, when time has dissipated the 
first motives of irritation, and brought back days of 
moderation and sentiments due to misfortune. An 
imnecessary evil of prodigious extent had just been 
inflicted on France ; it might rise to degrees equally 
exceeding the intentions of those who imposed the 
burden, as the faculties of those who had to support 
it. Thus pretensions, to the charge of France, have 
been seen to swell to the sum of sixteen hundred mil- 
lions. It had been as well to demand the surrender 
of half her blood, on the alternative of defending it; 
and, perhaps, she would have sold it dearly. From 
the moment permission was given to prefer demands 
against her, there was no longer any limit to demands. 
Worms from a thousand tombs were seen crawlins; 
to devour her.* But neither was it the ruin of France, 



• Bills drawn bj Henry IV. were produced ; those of the Reiters and 
Lansquenets were expected. Perhaps there was no necessit}- for despairing 
to see some bills of St. Lewis and Philip Augustus, for the transportation and 
supplies of the crusaders in the Holy Land. 



12 

nor the triumph of cupidity, that the princes desired, 
whom unfortunate circumstances had forced to impose 
on her hard conditions. It is known that many among 
them had never thought of spoils. By them also the 
voices of such as thirsted for extortions, were con- 
trouled ; and the tributes were balanced by the faculty 
of acquitting them. The chief of the European ar- 
mament displayed an honourable zeal against greedy 
exaggerations. Invested with the powers of the most 
flattering arbitration possible to be granted to a mere 
individual, he appeared to lean towards the weakest 
and the most unfortunate. The congress relaxed 
something of the rights already acquired by treaties ; 
and not to have delayed its decision, is, in some de- 
gree, to have enhanced its benefits. In this part, 
therefore, all is consummated, and of tlie year 1815, 
there remains only inscriptions on the register of pub- 
lic debt, disagreeable pages in history, and sad re- 
collections in the memory. 

Here two things are to be noted : 1. The various 
speculations to which the congress had given occa- 
sion. The convention of the principal sovereigns of 
Europe is an event calculated to suggest a host of 
conjectures ; it is natural to attach the highest impor- 
tance to the excursions of personages of this rank. 
Even the errors of the imagination find their source 
and their excuse in the greatness of those who are the 
objects of them; but here nothing favours such vague 
suppositions. The subject in agitation was not a new 
and inceptive action, but the anticipated conclusion of 
an action already ancient; but the accomplishment of 
an order arranged on principles steadily pursued for a 
course of several years. From 1813 to the close of 



13 

1815, the allied sovereigns have never separated. 
They saw distinctly, that in their approach consisted 
their strength, as their past separation had caused 
their weakness. In the rapid change that daily oc- 
curs in the face of affairs, how arrive at directing them 
according to the exigencies created by this very mo- 
bility ; when, at every moment, it is requisite to go to 
a distance to take and to give counsel ; to send or- 
ders ; t(5 redress wrongs ; and provide for a futurity 
rendered more obscure by the distance of the theatre 
of events? Therein is found the principle of the in- 
feriority of Europe with regard to France, during the 
v/hole course of the revolution. All assumed a dif- 
ferent appearance, when Europe assembled; when 
there was no longer but one tent and one council- 
chamber for all the enemies of Napoleon. In this 
permanent convention was forged the spear that 
pierced him, the force of which he ought to have 
foreseen; he perished because he was blind to the 
results of this new species of opposition ; he continued 
in renovated Europe, to see only ancient Europe. 

What had become of the coalition, if, instead of 
finding it assembled at Vienna, the descent at Cannes 
had surprised them dispersed, at London, Vienna, 
Petersburgh, and Berlin? Perhaps the contest would 
continue still; or, at least, it must have continued 
longer. 

The advantages experienced from anterior conven- 
tions were therefore the pledges of a new congress ; 
and this, authorised by an express stipulation, did not, 
in the least, countenance the supposition of the intro- 
duction of any affair foreign to this congress ; no im- 
portant event, foreign to its known object, had taken 

E 



14 

place in Europe; every expectation, therefore, wide 
of the declared object, was not within the limits of 
legitimate calculation upon this assembly. If a sin- 
gle question, passing the determinate object, were 
admitted, why not two? why not three? and then, 
where was the term? The treaty of Westphalia might 
have been seen to commence anew. Some consider- 
ed the congress as the sequel to that of Vienna; this 
was a great mistake; it was but the sequel to the 
treaty of Paris. The two conventions were acts ab- 
solutely independent of each other. Others summon- 
ed Spain and South America to appear at Aix-la- 
Chapelle ; this was quite another affair ; Spain had 
no more to ask ; especially than to see America con- 
demned for contumacy. It will some day become 
necessary to meet this great question of America; 
nor will it always be possible to avoid it; but assu- 
redly, it was not the hour of this congress, which 
could be that of America. 

The congress has had but one object^ to pronounce 
on the expediency of the evacuation of France; it has 
had but one session, that in which it has been pro- 
nounced. 

2. A long habit of Machiavelism, of abuse of 
force, of unworthy or vile pretexts to colour violations 
of faith, have extinguished, in the minds of a great 
number, all confidence in political good faith, or the 
sincerity of treaties ; and have disposed them to dis- 
trusts and suspicions, justified, unfortunately, by too 
many anterior facts. That which is good to take, is 
also good to keep : think you pretexts will be wanting 
to retain what they have in possession ? Such is the 
language which has incessantly been sounded in our 



15 

ears, for some years past ; perhaps by those who, 
when it was their turn, gave occasion for those, to 
whom they thus applied it, to apply it to themselves. 
Meanwhile, numerous motives were perceived 
tending to remove this apprehension, so disgraceful 
to the intellect and the heart. Good faith, it should 
be hoped, has not made this eternal retreat from the 
earth which the poet paints, when he says, 

Extrema per illos 
Justitia excedens terns vestigia fixit. 

The number of Princes who must have concurred 
to violate their sworn faith, the diversity of their in- 
terests, and more than all, the consideration of their 
personal character, presented the most encouraging 
guarantees. 

In this point, the* evil has a remote origin; and 
those, who in hatred of the revolution, represent it as 
the school of these fallacious dispositions, ought 
justly to look higher; they will discover the true 
causes of it in the perfidies sown, throughout the 
course of the negotiations of the cabinets of Vienna 
and of Berlin, by Frederic and the prince de Kaunitz. 
Silesia had vitiated the Austrian and Prussian diplo- 
macy. The partition of Poland; the invasion of 
Bavaria, by the emperor Joseph ; of Holland by the 
duke of Brunswick in 1787; the war against the 
Turks by Catharine and Joseph, had entirely despoil- 
ed diplomacy of its lustre before the revolution; 
England had invaded Canada, and captured from 
France • three hundred merchant ships before the 
declaration of the war of 1756. — What would become 
of England if she were always just towards France? 
was the answer of the English minister. 



16 

The school was perverted : all diplomatic acts, in 
the minds of too many, presented this art as composed 
only of ambuscades ; as a career in which to prevail 
was all : over which there presided one only divinity, 
and one only expiation was received — success. 
There has been ample time to experience the effects 
of these detestable principles. 

x\t present, when all is changed in so many other 
respects, all, also, ought to be changed in this. No 
examples but those of rectitude ought any longer, to 
be exhibited to men: all should remain convinced, 
that whoever begins to despise restraints, infallibly 
releases others from a multitude of ties. Good faith 
in diplomacy, and confidence in diplomacy are two 
things to be created anew in Europe. As the 
wounds are ancient and deep, much time will be 
required to cicatrize them : it will take time for diplo- 
macy to recover an honourable place in the esteem 
of men. 

The fidelity to engagements contracted at Paris, 
observed at Aix-la-Chapelle, lays the first stone in 
the reconstruction of the edifice. If the liberation of 
France had been adjourned, the credit of diplomacy 
would have been irretrievably ruined; it was its last 
shoal: whereas, a loyal and prompt execution, 
emanating from what, by its pow er, has no account 
to render but to morality and itself, forms the exam- 
ple; and closes the lips of peevish or interested 
malevolence. Europe had promised; she had ful- 
filled her engagements; she had all power; force 
therefore can acknowledge and impose laws on itself; 
can be moral ; we may therefore confide ; diplomacy 
and probity may then terminate their long divorce : 



17 

at this new spectacle it might be felt that a purer air 
was breathed ; and the clouds seemed to disperse in 
the horizon, opening a serener sky. 

The act which presents the commencement of this 
moral reformation is, for that very cause, the princi- 
ple of a most important good ; no less than that of 
reconciling men to good faith : and for my own part, 
if the expectation which, after the 5th of September, 
I did not hesitate to form, respecting the result of the 
Congress, had been disappointed, I felt that I should 
have been less afflicted for France than for Europe 
herself. 

The drama of 1815 is then entirely concluded. 
Let us next see what is about to follow. 

To explain this, it is requisite to state: 

1. What is the political state of Europe at the 
existing epoch, which may be considered as the 
conclusion of the order introduced by the revolution, 

2. To compare the order of the present time with 
that by which it has been preceded. 

3. To indicate the tendency of the spirit of the 
present policy of Europe. 

4. To designate the moral dispositions of the 
different nations of Europe. 

5. To anticipate the questions of general interest 
that may be expected to arise. 

The Congress of Vienna is to the policy of the 
revolution, what the treaty of Westphalia was to that 
of the reformation. The latter gave regularity to all 
that had been done in this long period of perturba- 
tions : it became a new era for individuals, as well as 
for states: during near two hundred years, in vast 
countries, all was dated from it. 



18 

Great commotions involve great changes; and 
strong stipulations founded on broad bases, at- 
tached to solid anchors, can alone prevent the past 
from returning to the charge to dispossess the present, 
and thus render peace impossible. Now peace is 
the first good; and for its maintenance, policy grants 
these grand social amnesties, which are admissions 
of the impotence of justice; the latter, in her despair, 
without changing her aim changes her object; direct- 
ing her entire solicitude to the body itself of society ; 
the health of which then serves to compensate the 
losses its members may have experienced. 

It is with this view to social preservation that the 
Congress of Vienna has sanctioned the work of the 
^evolution ; and accepted its succession. 

It is the treaty of Westphalia of our age ; it is the 
new normal era of Europe. During a long time 
diplomacy will have few other important cares be- 
sides those of explaining and maintaining it. 



19 



CHAPTER II. 

General Observations. — General Political Order of 
Europe. 

It is requisite to separate the continental power of 
Europe into two grand divisions, that of the north and 
that of the south. We must distinguish those powers 
which contribute to the maintenance of the general 
order, from those who contribute nothing to its sup- 
port, and do, as it were, but march in the train of the 
former. In this order of powers there are some ac- 
tive, others inactive, and merely passive. The poHcy 
of Europe is transacted exclusively in the North and 
in Germany. It does not pass beyond the Alps and 
the Pyrenees; whatever is found within these two 
zones, is neither in position nor proportion, to influ- 
ence it. This direction tends to become permanent 
in consequence of the events of 1813, 1814, and 1815. 
The supremacy of Russia is one of the principal 
causes of this new location of policy. It is natural 
it should approach the most powerful state ; lately, it 
was the same with respect to France when she was 
the most powerful. At present, concealed as it were 
on one side, by the kingdom of the Netherlands, and 
covered on the other by the ramparts raised by Ger- 
many to keep her at a distance, she is insulated by 
these two new barriers, from the rest of Europe. 
Thereby the continental policy is concentrated in the 
grand square formed by the Alps, the Rhine, the Bal- 



20 

tic, and the Vistula; this is the field in which it will 
be henceforth exercised. 

The existing positive order of Europe is that which 
flows either from the congress of Vienna or from the 
transactions which have taken place since 1813 and 
1815. Thus the state of France was regulated by 
the first treaty of Paris, as that of Sweden was by 
that of Keil. 

According to the new order, the gi*eater part of the 
states of Europe exist double, and contain unions of 
nations and states which heretofore were not embo- 
died with these sovereignties ; thus Russia and Po- 
land, Sweden and Norway, Holland and Belgium, 
Prussia and the Grand Duchy of the Rhine, with half 
of Saxony, present these grand unions in which one 
of the accessories equals the principal, as in the in- 
stance of Belgium with respect to Holland, and of 
Norway in regard to Sweden. In this case, there is 
association almost as much as adjunction or reunion^ 
a term as employed in policy, implying adjunction 
with inferiority. 

Inferiority is discovered in the other adjunctions, 
such as that of Poland with Russia, of a part of Saxony 
with Prussia, of Venice with Austria, of Genoa with 
Piedmont ; in all these cases there is rather subjection 
than union ; the sacrifice on one side, the acquisition 
on the other, are observable at the first glance. It is 
perceived, besides, that if, in one case, the union may 
have been desired, in others it must have been forced, 
and that the wish of separation is not likely to be long 
waited for, and will always be ready to return. The 
more civilisation shall extend its benefits, the more 
this disposition will gain strength; for the principal 



21 

and ever increasing effect of civilization, is to expose 
the deformities of the political as those of the social 
order. It would be a great self-deception to believe, 
that while advancing upon one point, it will remain 
stationary upon others. It is the nature of civilization 
to lead the way, and to control by an influence, as 
universal as irresistible, tlie destinies of human so- 
ciety ; it acts in every direction like air and light. 

The family of Europe has always reckoned among 
the members which compose it, powers of a supe- 
rior order; objects of much jealousy and distrust. 
When Russia and Prussia, these creations of the 
eighteentli century, did not yet exist, Germany con- 
stituted the material of the European policy, and the 
dominant power in this country, therefore, occupied 
the chief rank in the political order ; it was then Aus- 
tria; Charles the Fifth would have been the master of 
the continent but for the reformation. At that day it 
saved Europe from the chains of Austria, by dividing 
Germany between the Protestant and Catholic leagues ; 
and by causing the creation of the first political sys- 
tem that Europe has had. It gave France, in alliance 
with Sweden, the means of reducing the power of 
Austria to proportions less formidable to the common 
liberty. The reformation facilitated the creation of 
Prussia; who, whenever it was in her power, sustain- 
ed herself by this league ; and hastened to place her- 
self at the head of this politico-religious confedera- 
tion. 

When religious ideas had facilitated the introduc- 
tion and prevalence of those of policy, the Catholic 
states of Germany, such as Bavaria, the Palatinate, 
and some ecclesiastical electors, detached themselves 



22 

from Austria, whom they had followed thus far by 
reason of rehgious conformity ; and adopted the po- 
licy, which indicated France as their natural ally 
against the dominant power in Germany. Louis XIV. 
was almost always followed by the electors of Bava- 
ria, of Cologne, and by other princes of the empire, 
who dreaded the power of the emperor ; they attach- 
ed themselves in the same manner to Prussia, the 
moment she had exhibited the same character, of 
protector against Austria ; this policy, which might 
be called instinct, has served them well, as it was 
seen in the war of Bavaria in 1778 ; this state would 
have been crushed under the weight of the forces 
with which the emperor Joseph was preparing to 
overwhelm it, but for the prompt interference of 
Prussia. Austria found tlie latter always at her side, 
and was subjected to a more inquisitive observation 
than could have comported with the dignity of the 
modern Cesars. 

Previously to the revolution, a great number of 
causes combined to temper the effect of superiority 
in power, and to give it limits. As yet there was no 
absolute domination ; for there was no power which 
was not attended by what might be called its correc- 
tive. France found it in England; what state could 
she have attacked on the continent, without encoun- 
tering this powerful rival upon every sea, before all 
her ports, in the midst of all her colonies ? Her navy, 
as usual, would have annulled all conquests made by 
the armies of France, and would have forced her to 
restore them. By the possession of Belgium, Austria 
was rendered dependant on France, and kept in check 
by that power. In Germany, she was balanced by 



23 

Prussia; and, towards the East, by Turkey and Rus- 
sia. The latter had in Finland a dangerous neigh- 
bourhood. Gustavus III. astonished Petersburgh 
with the roar of his cannon ; and the haughty Catha- 
rine was nigh feeling the effects of the terror which 
she had been accustomed to inspire afar off. Den- 
mark kept Sweden in check. Turkey repressed 
Russia. There were therefore counterpoises, and 
fortune in creating them, had, in her sports, been 
more friendly to the liberties of Europe than the 
combinations that have succeeded. 

The revolution has caused great invasions ; and it 
is remarkable, that the power most infatuated by the 
spirit of invasion, is the same that has finally profited 
least by them ; and those, who have lost the most, 
who have been the most menaced, the most despoil- 
ed, are finally the most enriched. 

The time of equilibrium and ancient checks is 
past. Colossal powers have been erected in Europe ; 
this is the capital vice of her new state. Let us first 
consider that whose weight oppresses the continent; 
the power of Russia. 



24 



RUSSIA. 

The domination of the power which, during the 
first fifteen years of the century, has weighed upon 
Europe, has, by its ruin, experienced a complete 
change of location. 

It has passed from France to Russia, and Europe 
has lost by this change as much as France herself. It 
is in this immoderate augmentation of the Russian 
power, that the capital defect of the European policy 
consists ; it is this which has impressed the false direc- 
tion sanctioned by the congress of Vienna ; which 
has forced some of the arrangements that were made 
there, and which has prepared ages of toil for Eu- 
rope. 

By a singular, but fatal conformity with England, 
Russia is now almost as insular as England herself. 
From the wall of China to the plains of Moravia, and 
the gates of Breslaw, Russia is unbroken and without 
a neighbour. All this immense space acknowledges 
her for its only master. On one side, she is flanked 
by the Pole and the Baltic ; on the other, by Caucasus 
and the Caspian, the Danube and the Euxine. The 
nations which border upon her, brutalized by super- 
stition or slumbering in voluptuousness, are too much 
her inferiors to be able to disquiet her. She may bring 
all her forces, therefore, upon the menacing front she 
extends towards Europe. Sweden can no longer 
reach her by Finland, which has slipt from her grasp. 



25 

England could not employ in repressing her the same 
means which are so effectual with respect to France, 
placed within her reach ; for Russia has not the ma- 
rine, the colonies, and the commerce, that have ren- 
dered France so vulnerable. Immense distances, 
boisterous seas, and Boreas, with his breath of icCj 
defend Russia from England. 

Charles XII. in the eighteenth century, and Napo- 
leon in the nineteenth, have taken upon themselves, 
by a similar ruin, to engrave in characters not to be 
effaced on the frontiers of this land of perdition, what 
Dante inscribed upon the gates of his Hell^ — " Ye 
"who enter here^ abandon hope.^^ Thus Russia finds her 
force augmented from the despair of her enemies, 
and their known inability to retaliate upon her at 
home, the evil she can always inflict upon them ; ter- 
rific certainty, that of being always exposed to dan- 
gers, from which others must always be protected ! 

The augmentations of population in Russia follow 
the same proportions they are seen to acquire in Ame- 
rica ; and, for the same reasons, the extent of spaces, 
the abundance of subsistence, and the progi'ess of 
civilization. The United States departed in 1778 
from the point of two millions five hundred thousand 
inhabitants, to arrive, in 1818, at that of nine millions. 
It is calculated that in 1920, and perhaps before this 
epoch, their population will exceed one hundred mil- 
lions. Nothing can prevent it; tkj causes which have 
given them the first million will give them also the 
hundredth. It is the same in population as in the 
products of commerce ; the difficulty is not in gain- 
ing the last million, but the first. Russia possesses 
more than forty-five millions of inhabitants; a fair 



26 

point of departure, and a rich fund to ensure further 
accumulations. This population results from fifty 
ages of barbarism, and but one of attempts at civili- 
zation. To what will it not arrive, when civilization, 
diffused over the whole empire, may produce on the 
whole body of the monarchy the beneficial changes 
it has already produced in the parts it has been able 
to attain ? It cannot be doubted, in a hundred years, 
the population of Russia will exceed one hundred 
millions of men ; the spaces to receive them are all 
prepared ; the earth opens to them a virgin bosom for 
their nourishment ; commerce invites them ; indus- 
try will form the classes that will provide for their 
wants ; a varied climate will favour every species of 
culture; a thousand rivers will transport the products 
given by art or by nature ; there exists no cause ca- 
pable of arresting these progressions; there are a 
thousand to accelerate them. Each advance, as al- 
ways happens, will become the principle of another. 
To which may be added, at the present time, that the 
communication of ideas by the liberty of the press ; 
and of men with each other, by commerce and tra- 
velling; furnishing the means to know all that passes 
every where, has made a common fund of all human 
sciences; from which each draws in his turn, and 
which, instead of being exhausted by what is drawn 
from it, is augmented. Therein consists one of the 
principal benefits of civilization. For the daily me- 
lioration of condition it is no longer requisite to study, 
as one might say ; to look only would seem enough ; 
all is created, all is known ; all is at hand. 

The time employed in other epochs upon inqui- 
ries may be devoted now to successful applications : 



27 

the models are found in all places : they exist to mul- 
tiply instruction, and to render it general. Such is 
the distinction between modern and ancient societies. 
Men dispersed, innumerable baniers and arts in their 
infancy, could not conduct society to so rapid an 
improvement, as do the intercourse of men, the in- 
crease of communications, and arts acquiring greater 
perfection every day. The departure should be 
taken from this point of view in forming a judgment 
of the future progress of Russia. She has not only 
all that Europe possesses, but she has still more ; for 
she has a thousand places to dispose of for one that 
may be vacant in Europe. Besides no part of 
Europe is susceptible of so uniform a progress in a 
better order, as Russia. ; because, with her, all wdll 
be formed upon modern models, as at Petersburgh, 
and as in America. It is the advantage of new coun- 
tries ; delay is compensated by better formation. 

If any country of Europe were capable of a pro- 
gress equal to that of Russia, it could only be Ireland ; 
because, after Russia, it is the country where popula- 
tion is most scattered, and civilization most retarded : 
and there, as in Russia, it is very easy to procure the 
means of subsistence. In this is found the whole 
secret of the respective population of states. What 
completes the terror of this too certain prospect of 
the increase of the Russian power, is the contempla- 
tion that this immense population, attracted towards 
the south, (as that of the north has always been, flow- 
ing in that direction, like a river,) formed under the 
hand of a revered authority, of men robust, obedient, 
patient, as it were malleable, will be at the disposal q£ 
men equal in civilization to the most civilized men 



28 

of the rest of Europe, and that, as under the Roman 
emperors, a capital of great luxury is to commission 
its Corbidos to complete the conquest of the world ! 
A hundred millions of Russian peasants, always ready 
to support with their docile and muscular arms all the 
projects that power or caprice may engender, presents 
an appalling perspective; twice already they have hewn 
their way to the capital of France : by them the em- 
pire of the Sultans lies subverted on its shattered 
crescent ; nor is it long since the cries of these sons 
of the Scythians have been echoed by the tomb of 
the Mantuan Swan. Add to this, that Russia 
strengthened by a van guard of ten millions of Poles, 
is the only power of Europe that possesses in very 
great abundance, one of the most essential machines 
of war, one of the vital principles of the military state 
of a country, namely, horses. They exist in Russia 
in immense quantity, and in qualities of every 
species, each excellent in their kind: consequently 
also at prices that permit them to be used without 
parsimony : whereas in the rest of Europe the pro- 
gress of population combined with that of agriculture 
has narrowed the spaces necessary for rearing them. 
The advance of their price resulting from that of all 
the productions of the earth and of industry, has 
become so excessive as to render the acquisition and 
support of a numerous cavalry, a burden incompatible 
with the revenues of the greater part of tlie states of 
the continent. Napoleon was never able to create 
anew the cavalry whose ruins strewed the plains of 
Russia; whereas, the' latter, to repair a similar loss, 
would only have required an act of her will, and the 
time necessary to assemble them. In this particular, 



29. 

Russia resembles those parts of America filled by the 
animals transplanted from Spain, which from their 
numbers, seem the real inhabitants ; while the rest of 
Europe is unprovided with this species of force. 

Russia at present is therefore the dominant power 
on the continent ; the power that menaces others ; in 
a condition to come in contact with others; and 
beyond all reach on their part ; consequently present- 
ing a danger that always impends. The congress of 
Vienna, by sanctioning the occupation of Poland, has 
given a false direction to the policy of Europe ; which 
required that Russia should be kept at a distance, 
at any cost: all should have been sacrificed to this 
consideration. The moment of establishment is that 
in which reflections are the most necessary; it is that 
of precautions : once formed, what does it not cost to 
repair, to correct, and often to obtain a slender re- 
dress! This will be perceived with respect to 
Russia. Now that she is fortified by such a van- 
guard as two thirds of Poland ; when her wrings are 
perfectly protected, w'ho could cause her to retreat 
a step, who will prevent her from stepping over her 
barriers? Between her and Germany what hence- 
forth is the distance, the wall of separation, and the 
rampart? In vain will it be said, that the effects of 
this combination will be tempered by the personal 
qualities of the sovereign of this formidable empire. 
Is it then that policy is framed with men, and not 
rather with things? Is it that augmentation of power 
does not include an invitation to the exercise of 
power? Is it that the eternity of Alexander can be 
assured like his immortality; will his soul like his 
sceptre be transmitted entire to his successors ? 

G 



30 

We may be assured, on the contrary, that Europe 
which has sighed for the reverses of Napoleon, and 
has profited by them to effect her emancipation ; in 
reality, has but changed the yoke and taken that of 
Russia instead of that of France ; it was for the ad- 
vantage of Europe even more than- for his own that 
Napoleon made war upon Russia; and let us take 
heed lest the day arrive in which his defeat shall be 
deplored. 

The part of Poland last united to Russia has re- 
ceived consolations rather than a state. There are 
things for which there can exist no compensation. 
Nations have in this respect a sensibility still more 
delicate than individuals : their very existence ceases 
with their independence. "Whatever name may 
decorate a foreign domination, it is still to be com- 
manded. The smallest particle of dependance suf- 
fices to embitter all the liberty that may remain. The 
Polish army will be a very powerful auxiliary for 
Russia; nothing can surpass the Polish soldier in 
courage, in patience, or in force ; he unites the quali- 
ties of the Russian and the Frenchman ; he is an ex- 
cellent horse-man; loves war and has been trained 
to it. Among the Poles will reappear the Sobieskis, 
the Kosciuskos, the Poniatowskis, and their banners 
associated to those of Russia, will one day perhaps 
be displayed in the same places where they have 
appeared at the side of other ensigns. Poland is 
now cut into more pieces than it ever was. Gallicia 
appertains to Austria in consequence of the first par- 
tition : the dutchy of Posen, Dantzick, with the lower 
Vistula, are subject to Prussia. Three other parts 
are possessed by Russia; Volhynia and Lithuania, 



31 

as Russian provinces, and the kingdom of Poland as a. 
state united with Russia. The combination appears 
singular at the first glance; but a little attention 
enables us to discover in it precautions against the 
reestablishment in one mass of too large a portion 
of the ancient Polish family. Divisions of states, and 
of aggregations, excite less umbrage, and are less 
disposed to question authority than unions of greater 
strength: ten millions of Poles united in the same 
state would have felt a degree of strength altogether 
different from that which results from their separation 
and distribution between three different governments- 
To have reunited the three great parts of Poland had 
been to accomplish a work sketched by Napoleon ; 
and his conquerors could not persuade themselves to 
become his testamentary executors. 



32 



SWEDEN. 

Nob Li and pacific destinies await Sweden: polic}^ 
has reestablished the order of nature ; and what het 
Gustavuses, her Charles Xs, her Charles XIIs, were 
unable to effect, a Frenchman invited to this throne 
has executed. Sweden is indebted to him for the ac- 
quisition of a position proof against all attack. Happy, 
henceforth, in having nothing more to fear or to de- 
sire, her attention will be confined to two principal 
objects : to confirm the union with Norway; and main- 
tain her connexion with the body of Europe, should 
she ever have occasion to act against Russia : Swe- 
den alone cannot have the temerity to encounter this 
i^wer; and, very fortunately for her, she has no other 
neighbour; peace will be, therefore, her portion, and 
with it the peaceful cultivation of its consoling and 
beneficent arts, agriculture, manufactures and com- 
merce. A new dynasty forced to incessant vigilance 
for its own security; instructed by great examples m the 
dangers of slumber, as in those of presumption; must 
seek in the augmentation of the public prosperity new 
pledges of stability; and in this case, the great ad- 
vantages attached to this necessity of seeking to merit 
the consideration of a people, may balance the incon- 
veniences inherent to such changes, even when they 
have become the work of necessity. 

In the course of time, the population of Sweden 
will also experience great augmentation : she will owd? 



33 

•it more to commerce and manufactures than to agri- 
culture; resisted by the climate, and little favoured by 
the soil. 

Her ports will contribute more to it than her fields; 
it will be with her as with all maritime cpuntries, (for 
Sweden has become such since the union of Norway,) 
in which it is more by furrowing the sea than by work- 
ing the soil, that the state prospers and increases in 
riches and in population. The great wars of Gusta- 
vus Adolphus, those of Protestantism and of Charles 
XII., had given Sweden a direction towards land ar- 
maments ; this direction was forced by the possession 
of the greater part of the territory bordering on the 
Baltic; which Sweden has lost. 

When she occupied Pomerania, Livonia, and Fin- 
land, she had need of great armies of the line; and 
her navy was of little service but for the transport of 
her troops, and the defence of her coasts ; but at pre- 
sent, when her own shores are her limits, she has 
more need of a strong militia than of regular troops; 
and her marine may take the extensive direction re- 
quired by the new order of Europe, with which she 
ought to co-operate. 

The grand movement which agitates the continent 
of Spanish America will extend its effects to Sweden ; 
it has the appearance of being made for the maritime 
nations of the north; and for those that have few or 
no colonies ; for they are destined to gain those of 
others, without losing their own: and what a colony 
is all America ! This great and astonishing event, 
the separation of Southern America from Spain; an 
event now inevitable, and a certain prelude to the en- 
franchisement of all the colonies in the four quarters 



34 

of the globe, will lead to immense accumulations of 
power and of wealth among the nations of the north ; 
far superior to those of the south, in the useful arts, in 
activity, in the pursuit of luxuries, and in the love of 
gain. Europe would not resemble herself, if, instead 
of falling into the hands of superstitious and indolent 
Spain, South America had been shared among the 
laborious and enterprizing people that inhabit the north 
of Europe. There was a fatal mistake for the human 
race in the gift made by heaven of America to Europe; 
that of having destined her to the indolent men who 
dwell within the Pyrenees; they could make nothing 
of her when she slept; they are incapable of retaining 
or releasing her, since she is awakened. 

The union of Norway to Sweden, gives this power 
good ports of commerce upon the ocean, which she 
wanted; and which will place her in a condition to 
extend her commercial relations, about to take the 
place of warlike occupations; which have hitherto 
formed the chief business of life among the people of 
Scandinavia. By this pacificatory union, the country 
in which the cruel God of War had established his 
horses and his car, will no longer be disturbed by its 
terrific rumblings : henceforth it is destined to become 
the residence of a peace, little short of eternal. 

Some slia;ht asritations at the surface of a soil that 
has recently felt a general shock, ought to excite no 
alarm for the future ; and the piercing eye that watch- 
es over these countries ; the firm, able, and paternal, 
but vigorous hand that rules them, will not fail at the 
same time to prevent, to obviate, to compress and to 
punish all that shall attempt to interrupt this peace. 
The security of the Baltic is better guarantied by the 



35 

concentration of Sweden and Norway, in the same 
state, than it was before this union. A strong state, 
single, is more strong than two weak states, united, 
but subject to be separated. In the state of maritime 
and continental preponderance which, at the same 
time, both England and Russia have acquired; it was 
for the interest of Europe to fortify and strengthen as 
much as possible, the power of the north that was 
found most competent to guard the Baltic at once 
against England and against Russia. This charge for 
the future, devolves on Sweden. In this view her 
union with Norway is an act as beneficial to Europe 
in general, as to Sweden in particular. The acquisi- 
tion of Norway has more than recompensed her for 
the loss of Finland. 

The fortune of states must be estimated like that 
of individuals : the expense, as well as the receipt^ 
must be taken into the account. 

Nothing is more economical for a state than not to 
have borderers ; and this is what Sweden has gained 
by the loss of Finland, and by the acquisition of Nor- 
way. The one has relieved her from the formidable 
vicinity of Russia, the other from contact with Den- 
mark. The diminution of expense compensates for 
that of revenue. Finland, it is true, yielded more 
than can be drawn from Norway. But the defence of 
the former, and the defence against the latter, more 
than compensated the inequality of the two products. 
The causes of wars, which are always the occasion of 
the greatest expenses of states, and in one year absorb 
many years of revenue, appear to be removed by this 
insulation of Sweden. 

The comparitive force, with respect to Denmark, is 



36 

augmented, and the relative weakness, in regard to 
Russia, is diminished; for Sweden, enclosed in the 
Scandinavian peninsula, is much less exposed to the 
encroachments of Russia than she was in possessing 
Finland. The latter has much regretted Sweden; 
Sweden, in return, has much regretted Finland; as 
Norway, on her part, has much regretted Denmark; 
and on all sides, from a sentiment of habit, far more 
than from reflection ; for the best thing that could have 
befallen these states was, to be as they are, and cease 
to be as they were. 

The new relations of the political existence of 
Sweden, resulting from its new formation, are highly 
important. They deserve to be carefully remarked, 
because in its present state this power will have an 
influence upon the affairs of Europe which before it 
was unable to obtain. Not that she will be permitted 
to see the return of the brilliant days of Gustavus 
Adolphus or of Charles XII.; days in which the Swe- 
dish arms shone with a splendour like that which 
lately graced the arms of France; which, besides, 
have had with it the cruel conformity of a Pultawa; 
it is only intended to present her as entitled to expect 
a futurity more important than was her position under 
the pressure of Russia, and in a proportional equality 
with Denmark ; she is enfranchised from the one, and 
she surpasses the other. 

Sweden has no longer any subject of controversy 
with Prussia, formerly made her enemy by the Swe- 
dish possessions in Pomerania ; nor with the German 
empire, to which Sweden is no longer held by any 
tie. She will have, therefore, at all times, the entire 
disposal of her forces, 1. For herself; 2. To concur 



37 

with the rest of Europe in repressing the two invaders 
that menace, at the same time, by land and by sea; 
Russia and England. No one, therefore, has any 
thing to demand of Sweden in her insulated state 5 
Sweden has nothing to ask of any one ; there can 
exist no situation of peace more decided, more con- 
firmed by the nature of things; nor that could better 
enable a state to turn all its views towards its internal 
improvement. 



38 



DENMARK. 

This state is found in a situation nearly similar 
to that of Sweden. Its weakness does not allow it an 
active part in policy. It cannot attack Sweden, from 
which the sea separates it; it could still less encroach 
upon the German empire, which commences at its 
gates. Sweden has no longer any thing to demand 
of it ; she would be prevented from it by Russia, by 
England, in fine by all the world. Denmark is there- 
fore secure of the consistency of its territory and of 
its peaceable possession. By the late treaties it has 
been subjected to many sacrifices; and the victim of 
many evils, of which it was innocent. The policy of 
Denmark is, therefore, to turn its views towards mari- 
time commerce; as a source of riches and of popula- 
tion. Its position offers it all the means; and will 
cause it to participate largely in the augmentation of 
wealth, promised the North of Europe by the eman- 
cipation of South America; and by that of the Euro- 
pean colonies generally. This emancipation will be 
the fortune of the shores of the Baltic; whose riches, 
all circulating upon the coasts of Denmark, cannot 
fail to leave there traces of their passage, which mo- 
ney usually leaves in the hands in which it has been 
lodged. Copenhagen is destined to become the ne- 
cessary emporium of the Baltic, in its commerce with 
America. 

This result is inevitable in the movement of the 



39 

commerce which is now opening between America 
and the north of Europe; and which cannot fail to 
experience a great increase. Denmark is situated 
upon the route between the two countries of the world 
that are destined to make the largest and the most 
rapid strides; America and Russia. Every vessel 
carrying to Russia that which she wants, and on re- 
turning, laden with her products, must pass by the 
shores of Denmark. The latter is even better located 
to receive tlie tributes of the commercial world; than 
is the Cape of Good Hope, to profit by the commerce 
that connects Europe with India ; and besides, what 
a difference, in the activity of the two communica- 
tions. The vessels in the Baltic vvill be counted by 
thousands; when at tl^ie Cape a few hundreds will 
hardly be reckoned. The naval increase, whether 
commercial or military, in all the states of Europe, 
will add every day to the value of the commerce of 
the Baltic, which supplies all its elements ; the increas- 
ing wealth and population of the north will render 
more abundant the consumption of the commodities 
produced in the south of Europe. 

Already, within a century, this commerce has in- 
creased an hundred fold. When Petersburgh did not 
exist, or when it had recently sprung from the bosom 
of marshes; the Russian commerce was very far from 
being what it is at this day. It will grow in proportion to 
the improvement of the Russian empire; in proportion 
to the luxury of the cities that border upon the Baltic; 
to the taste for luxuries which these nations will ac- 
quire in their turn; who by the Baltic communicate 
with the rest of the universe, and who by navigation 
may participate in all its productions. The future 



40 

commerce of the Baltic is therefore incalculable ; and 
Denmark, occupying the entrance of this sea, cannot 
fail to be associated to this prosperity, the dawn of 
which already gleams on the Baltic. It is one of those 
fortunate positions created by nature to give the fruits 
of all, without any share of the toil. The futurity of 
Denmark is therefore altogether commercial. She 
ought to leave policy to other states; who can only 
turn it in her favour; while her efforts in policy could 
only tend against herself; as has been manifested in 
the course of her alliance with Napoleon. She has 
the happiness to possess only colonies of little value; 
and will lose nothing therefore by the general discon- 
tinuance of this species of national property; which 
will inevitably take place; and she will thus be ad- 
mitted into all the others ; this is to gain all for no- 
thing, than which, there is no surer means to become 
rich. 

It is, unfortunately, not usual that the prosperity of 
others should become the subject of joy. But who 
could feel wounded at seeing the prosperity of a mo- 
ral, pacific people; whose name, unstained by ambi- 
tion, has not for ages been loaded with the weight of 
an unjust aggression; that has suffered wrongs of an 
aggravated character; that has been mutilated for a 
cause in which it had no interest ; and that cultivates 
peace under the government of princes whose virtues 
would be the apology of the legal despotism which is 
attributed to them; if despotism could, in any place 
on the earth, be the object of law or of apology ? The 
materials were wanting to give Denmark the indemni- 
fi.cation that had been promised her. The same diffi- 
culty always occurs in countries whose fortresses are 
all occupied by the enemy. 



41 

It is impossible to enlarge spaces ; the possessors 
defend them; and treaties remain without the possibi- 
lity of executing them. Accordingly supplementary 
conventions have been seen to take place, entered into 
between Austria and Bavaria. Austria, on resuming 
her ancient territory, was obliged to pledge herself to 
procure indemnifications for the state which made her 
this retrocession. But where were they to be taken, 
in the midst of a country occupied by princes not 
parties to these private stipulations; much attached to 
their possessions; and by as good a right as the con- 
tracting parties could have to their own. Baden was 
designated to furnish the indemnification for territories 
in the release of which it had no concurrence; thus 
these two powers had settled between themselves at 
the expense of a third, who had not been consulted. 
The object was to reinstate Bavaria in all that part 
of die Palatinate which had appertained to her, as she 
also reinstated Austria in her own. Thus far all went 
\vell ; but as Baden could not f elinquish that which 
appertained to itself, in the sole view of sanctioning 
contracts made without its participation; or to procure 
Bavaria the satisfaction of finding herself re-establish- 
ed in her ancient dominions ; as there were no territo- 
ries ancient or new to give Baden; a controversy has 
ensued, in which the Grand Duke has published re- 
monstrances, in favour of which justice and nature 
seem to have conciliated the general interest; and the 
business has remained in a state of Htigation" which 
the great powers are invited to determine. 

Denmark has experienced the effects of the same 
failure of the means of indemnification. The nature 
of things, in accordance with the better order of Ger- 



42 

many, which demands the simplification of the politi- 
cal machinery; with the better order even of Europe, 
which renders it necessary to fortify the powers that 
support the burden of maintaining the general system; 
and to diminish those who are numbered without 
contributing to it by any real force; should cause 
Lubeck, Hamburgh, with all the part of the duchy 
of Lauemburgh, situated to the right of the Elbe, to 
be adjudged to Denmark. 

In the treatise on the Congress of Vienna, we have 
shewn why, in former times, Hanseatic cities were 
necessary; and why, in modem times, these ancient 
emporiums of commerce have become superfluous. 

It is found on a near survey, that this arrangement 
is no better for these cities in particular, than for Ger- 
many in general; and that it diminishes the strength 
of the defence of the north; which, at the present 
day, ought to be the capital object of the policy of 
Europe. 

This is one of the errors of the congress which the 
magnitude of some others has screened from the ani- 
madversion it deserved. It has escaped in the crowd. 



43 



KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS. 

Even the most lawful and natural grief ought 
not to impose silence on reason ; tears ought not to 
close up the avenues of sight; so also, with whatever 
anguish of heart a Frenchman must contemplate a 
creation which costs so dear to his country ; it cannot 
be forbidden him to examine and to remark, the pro- 
perties of a state formed by a dismemberment he must 
so deeply regret. After having paid to sentiment a 
tribute but too legitimate, let us return to the positive 
order of the existing policy. It has willed a defensive 
system in Germany and the north against France ; it 
was believed that these two points had always been 
left without sufficient defence ; and that the multitude 
of petty principalities situated in this quarter, did not 
constitute an effectual defence of it against her; thence 
resulted the creation of the kingdom of the Nether- 
lands; to be complete, this system ought to carry 
this state to the Rhine. 

Since this territory was stripped from France, the 
new state should have been invested with the entire 
spoil. With its actual limits, all the eastern part of 
this kingdom has nothing to support it; and remains 
equally unprotected against France and against Ger- 
many ; whereas by the complete possession of this 
space, the kingdom of the Netherlands would have 
had only a single front to defend. The Rhine would 
have separated it from the German powers. It is one 



44 

of the failings of policy ; in producing great changes 
she leaves them incomplete; one would say that 
whatever goes beyond mere sketches fatigues or baf- 
fles her art. Diplomatic brains resemble not those of 
Jupiter; their conceptions are not created armed at 
all points. Since an idea was conceived of so much 
elevation as that of giving a defensive barrier to the 
North; it ought to have been extended to a degree 
which would have constituted it an efficient force cor- 
respondent to its destination; instead of stopping on 
the road, as has been done. 

Here again are met the aberrations of the Congress 
of Vienna. The creation of the kingdom of the Ne- 
therlands in its actual state had preceded the conven- 
tion of that congress ; but Russia having taken the 
greater part of Prussian Poland; and Prussia by her 
position being exposed to sustain the first shock of 
Russia; it became necessary to seek for the latter 
means of extension correspondent to her losses, as 
well as to her new exigencies. There presented two 
of these means ; the one, Saxony, in the neighbour- 
hood of Prussia ; the other distant from her, that is 
to say, the vacant parts of Germany; which had form- 
ed the ecclesiastical or temporal states between the 
Meuse and Rhine. 

The interest of Europe, in accordance with reason, 
attributed Saxony to Prussia; and indicated the trans- 
portation of the sovereignty of the king of Saxony to 
the borders of the Rhine ; the evil genius of Europe 
has caused it to be ordered otherwise. It has been 
his will that the highest considerations of the political 
order, embracing the eternal security of this country, 
should have been sacrificed to abstract principles, at 



45 

the same moment, violated by other acts of the mjDst 
solemn character, whose effects are seen by all the 
world; he has willed that, when the sacrifice of re- 
publican states cost not a moment's discussion, the 
aspect of a monarchy four days old, should inspire 
an awful respect; as if the rights of some were of an 
order inferior to those of others ; and that legitimacy 
were merely patrimonial and restricted to families. 
Venice and Genoa had more of legitimacy than the 
Saxon monarchy; the infant of Parma was more 
legitimate at Parma, than Maria Louisa of Austria ; 
and since each resumed his place by the sole authority 
of ancient possession, it is not seen why some were 
readmitted with so much facility, whilst others were 
turned aside with so much rigour. Can any one 
assign a sufficient reason why the Doge of Genoa, 
and the infant of Parma, might not have been allowed 
to resume the seats of which the revolution had de- 
prived tliem, with altogether as much propriety as 
the king of Sardinia, the duke of Modona, and the 
pope were permitted, each to resume theirs? Those 
on whom it is incumbent to direct the affairs of the 
world, ought to remain thoroughly persuaded that 
nothing more distorts the understanding of those thej'- 
have to direct, than an unequal application of equal 
principles; and that the eyes of men follow all the 
movements of the balance they hold in hand, to dis- 
cover what causes it to incline to one side more than 
to the other; and still their aberrations excite aston- 
ishment, after the model has been furnished them ; 
yet their suspicions excite irritation, when the real 
causes of them are created by the circumstances con- 
tinually before their eyes ! It is therefore in an espe- 

I 



46 

cial manner, the invasion of Poland by Russia that 
has prevented just proportions being given to the 
kingdom of the Netherlands. Therein exists the 
principle of all the disorder of Europe. Such is the 
first fruit of it, and a foretaste of others. It has pro- 
duced the necessity of seeking indemnifications for 
Prussia, for the losses she had sustained. Around 
her all was taken, occupied, and defended. The 
obstacles were insurmountable. A necessity was 
therefore imposed of seeking at a distance for that 
which could not be given her adjacently: it is this 
which has brought her upon the Rhine, for there was 
no room except there. She has transported herself 
thither at the expense of all, and to her own injury; 
whereas she would have remained upon the Elbe 
with utility for others and for herself. This fatal 
resolution of the Congress of Vienna has marred all. 
It has given to the whole continental policy a false 
gait, from which nothing will be able to recover it. 
Prussia is the citadel of Germany against Russia: 
this citadel has been divided into two parts, which 
have no reciprocal adherence; which may create 
umbrage in a great number of places, but safety no 
where. This is one of the greatest faults that policy 
has ever committed; ages will scarcely suffice to 
correct it. If ever circumstance exacted the full 
exercise of the perspicacity and of the energy of 
statesmen, assuredly it was that in which the eternal 
foundation of the establishment of Europe was in 
agitation: interest commanded them to marshal all 
the forces of their understanding and of their will, to 
give this establishment all the solidity required by 
the protecting order of Europe; which could only be 



47 

accomplished by concentrating, by rendering great 
and compact the Prussian power; Europe^'s first line 
of defence against the danger that threatens in the 
north. 

Situated between France and Prussia, in view of 
England, the kingdom of the Netherlands, locked in 
between three powers, each of which is stronger than 
itself, can present nothing to offend. It has no interest 
but in peace with each individually, and in reciprocal 
peace between them ; for it would be very difficult for 
it to escape unhurt amidst the explosion of their 
quaiTels. France would defend it against Prussia; 
Prussia and England against France ; the bases of 
its existence are therefore solid. It ranks in the first 
class among states of the second order. Nothing 
should induce it to be jealous of France ; this would 
be a thought unworthy of it ; it ought to discover in 
its position enough to raise it above these vain sus- 
picions. 

In the actual state of Europe, with the ever certain 
succours of England, the author of its existence, and 
of Prussia its neighhbour, it ought to confide in its 
security against France ; it ought to know that she 
would not incur the dangers of a general war, ta 
wrest from it a few leagues of territory. To triumph 
over it, it will be necessary to triumph also over all 
Europe ; the army of the kingdom of the Netherlands 
is not only in Belgium and in Holland, but besides 
it is found in all the garrisons of Europe, especially 
in the ports of England : the ramparts of the kingdom 
of the Netherlands are not only found in the fortresses 
which strengthen its frontier; but besides they are in 
all the arsenals of Europe; which would be seen to 



48 

pour forth all their destructive contents upon France, 
at the first movement she should make against this 
kingdom. According to these considerations of the 
general system, the degrees of the solidity of this 
state must be estimated. It constitutes a part of the 
general European system; it resides under its protec- 
tion, this system will permit nothing to be retrenched 
from it: encroachments upon France would not be 
prohibited this state, so rigorously, as they would be 
interdicted to France upon it. 

Besides, no account is to be made of what is pub- 
lished so widely, relative to the alienation which the 
two parts of this new union are said to feel towards 
each other; the true cause of it ought to be known; 
it should be ascertained how far it extends, and what 
is its tendency : whether the foundation itself, of the 
union, is susceptible of being affected by it; or whe- 
ther it be only the result of those passing clouds that 
are observable in recent unions; whether it be merely 
a question of certain restraints created by circum- 
stances, or of certain errors, to be redressed in the 
administration; all which are matters that may be left 
to time, and that no- wise impede the movement of a 
state. Now such is the picture presented by the 
kingdom of the Netherlands. The government is 
seated on a level with that of all other countries. All 
the parts of the machine move harmoniously together 
under the direction of a superior ; abundance exists 
in the treasury and among the people; the adminis- 
tration discovers no reluctance to any reform, or to 
any improvement; a few men, a few casts, may 
perhaps not find themselves placed as they might 
think they ought to be, according to their imagina- 



49 

tibn, or their habits of discontent : wherein does this 
affect a state, or differ from what passes every where? 
To whom, besides, would these querulous personages 
appeal ? Nay, if the state, of which they complain 
vaguely, were positively attacked, perhaps they 
might shew themselves the most zealous in its de- 
fence. 

The kingdom of the Netherlands will perceive the 
advancement of its prosperity in the extension of its 
agriculture and commerce. 

One of its parts, Belgium offers the richest theatre 
of cultivation that exists in Europe. Agriculture 
will follow the degrees of augmentation experienced 
by commerce : one never advances without the other. 
If the kingdoms of the north will gain infinitely by the 
emancipation of America, this great event will be at- 
tended by results not less advantageous for the king- 
dom of the Netherlands. 

The Flemish labourer, the Dutch calculator, the 
economist of Antwerp, will be associated in all the 
benefits with which this event is replete for the entire 
world. All will partake of the harvest of this new 
field, in proportion to the particular qualities for which 
each is distinguished. The Dutch colonies in Ame- 
rica are points almost imperceptible in the colonial 
world. Those of the Moluccas must be considered 
as precarious enjoyments, while England occupies 
the Cape of Good Hope, and reigns in India, without 
a rival. Even were they a thousand times more pre- 
cious, for what is not America a large indemnifica- 
tion? And, besides, in the state of commerce, and 
relations which bind all nations together, to lose a co- 
lony, is almost always to lose merely a nominal, and 
often a burdensome, sovereignty. 



50 

When the genius of commerce is possessed to the 
degree in which it appertains to the Dutch, do not 
the colonies of the whole world belong to whoever can 
render his commerce with them the most advanta- 
geous; and procures them, for their productions, the 
market of the world? Now, in this respect, who 
can flatter themselves to surpass the Dutch? 

The kingdom of the Netherlands has for allies, up- 
on land, England and Prussia : they are its guardi- 
ans against France ; upon the sea, France and neu- 
trals are its allies against England. 

The system of this state, as is seen, is double; but 
much more restricted upon land than upon sea : for 
on land, it is in contact but at two points; with France 
and with Prussia : whereas, by sea, it is in contact 
with all. The kingdom of the Netherlands forms a 
branch of the maritime confederation, established by 
the nature of things between all maritime states against 
the preponderant power; superior to each, in particu- 
lar, and to all united together. 

All the navies of Europe are in permanent alliance 
against England; as are all the armies of the conti- 
nent against Russia; and for the same reason, the ex- 
cess of the superiority of each. These, at present, 
are the two menacing points; and every thing indi- 
cates the importance of never losing sight of them. 

The population of the Netherlands, though in a re- 
stricted circumference, is destined to acquire very 
great augmentations. It amounts to seven millions of 
inhabitants. But as this country is the seat of an ex- 
cellent culture; as it takes a distinguished part in 
commerce; and as it contains vast spaces still unoc* 
cupied; the population will increase by these three 
causes. 



51 

Europe becomes every day more commercial. This 
is so much sure gain for the Dutch genius, which is 
eminently commercial. America will offer, every 
year new commercial advantages; advantages of 
which it is impossible to assign the term, and of 
which the Dutch will participate largely. The gene- 
ral commerce takes the direction of the north : Hol- 
land is upon its passage, placed in the centre of Eu- 
rope; it must therefore enjoy the profits of the north 
and of the south. The increase of the Dutch com- 
merce is, therefore, very certain; and that of its popu- 
lation, as its necessary consequence; for the one can- 
not advance without the other. 

From the gates of Antwerp, and from those of Ber- 
gen op Zoom to the Meuse, and from the Yssel to 
the Ems, vast spaces extend, as yet scarcely visited 
by cultivation, and which are void of inhabitants; but 
which will not always be able to elude the action of 
wealth and of population. Essays are made every 
day; establishments are formed; encouragements are 
given by the government; a gradual conversion can- 
not fail to be made of these moors into fertile fields; 
under the able and laborious hands of the same men, 
some of whom have redeemed from the sands, and 
others from the sea, the animated scenes of cultiva- 
tion and fertility, which present so cheerful an aspect 
throughout Belgium and Holland. A numerous po- 
pulation will here find the means of subsistence. The 
population of the kingdom of the Netherlands cannot 
therefore, fail to increase greatly, and in as great a 
ratio, at least, as that of all the countries that environ 
it; for it is a truth, no one can deny, that population 
is on the increase in every part of Europe. This rer 



52 

suit seems incredible, after five-and-twenty years of 
continual and terrible wars: it is, however, not the 
less certain: it flashes in the eyes of all who do not 
wilfully close them: it is manifest at every step, by 
the increase of cities and villages; by structures that 
rise in every part of the country. 

This result overwhelms with confusion and despair 
a class of men who would that the revolution had 
been a box of Pandora, and a tomb excavated by her 
for the human race. In their despair at not being able 
to reproach it with the destruction of the species, 
tliey will, at least, enjoy the pleasure of reproaching 
it with having diminished its numbers. 

However unpleasant it may be to have to deny 
them this gratification, yet it cannot be conceded 
them; and they must learn that in the whole course of 
the revolution, population has not ceased to increase; 
that the revolution repaired by active though imper- 
ceptible means, what it consumed on the other hand. 

However numerous and repeated the hecatombs of 
the human race which have been sacrificed during so 
many years of blood, still the result has disappointed 
all calculations in favour of humanity. The reason 
is, that of late years war and its scourges have not 
acted uncontrolled; superabundant compensations 
were furnished by a better civilization; which has 
given the means of repairing and even of overbalan- 
cing thfe losses experienced in other respects. 

Too much has been insisted on the multiplication 
of marriages produced by the laws of the revolution, 
and the precautions taken by each against war. As- 
suredly this cause has not been without some effect, 
but as it has not acted equally in all the countries 



53 

where the same increase of population is manifest; 
to arrive at a solution, recourse must be had to a 
cause which, by its generaHty, is of a nature to ope- 
rate equally every where; and this cause cannot be 
found but in civilization. The progress of the one 
can be measured by that of the other; a certain proof 
of their filiation. 

The countries of Europe in which civilization is 
least advanced, have participated in this progress; but 
only in proportion to their respective degrees of civi- 
lization. Civilized nations have acquired a know- 
ledge of all that tends to promote the salubrity of ha- 
bitations, of food, and of clothing; these three great 
means of the preservation of the species ; the curative 
methods, better conceived, have become more con 
formable to natme ; and scourges of a nature to deci- 
mate humanity have been arrested; and almost de- 
stroyed in their germ; death has been driven from 
this vast field of his cruel harvests ; better attentions 
given to infancy have preserved it from serious evils ; 
competence has been diffused; lucrative occupations 
have multiplied; heavy weights have been retrenched 
from the burdens supported by the people of the 
different states ; vast properties in lands have been 
divided among colonies of new proprietors; which 
have become under the hands of persons interested in 
the success of their cultivation, nurseries of men and 
granaries for their subsistence ; thus that which had 
furnished the luxury of ©ne only, has become the 
means of subsistence for a hundred. To this assem- 
blage of causes is to be attributed the increase of po- 
pulation which v.-ar has not been able to arrest; causes 
which, in the future absence of war, that may be 

K 



54 

hoped with confidence, when all the social relations 
will no longer suffer interruption, cannot fail to operate 
with redoubled energy ; and will carry the population 
of this part of the globe to a maximum that cannot 
be calculated. This is what renders so vain the ter- 
rors betrayed by some governments and some writers, 
at the existence of some trivial emigrations that are 
perceptible in certain countries^ as if the absence of 
an hundred thousand men would create a chasm in 
the whole population of Europe; as if these hundred 
thousand men, transplanted in other climates, did not 
take with them the tastes of Europe, and thereby esta- 
blish relations, th^ maintenance of which require more 
hands, and consequently an increase of population; 
as if a consumer in one country did not instantly 
create a producer in another; as if the inhabitants 
which Europe has furnished the new world, in the 
course of the last three centuries, had not contributed 
by their commercial correspondence to the augmen- 
tation of European population. Ten millions, five- 
and-twenty millions of consumers in America, must 
have occasioned the birth of as many producers in 
Europe. Such are the secret ties, concealed, as it 
were, in the gauzy tissue of society, which it is es- 
sential to trace, in order to appreciate truly what 
passes in their bosom, and to prevent the errors that 
will deceive those who judge only from appearances. 



55 



PRUSSIA. 

As placed by the Congress of Vienna, Prussia 
stretches one of her arms to the gates of Thionville, 
upon the Moselle, and the other to Memel, upon the 
Niemen, the frontier of Russia; the body that should 
unite these two members is to be sought for. 

There are three Prussias ; the first in Poland, the 
second in Germany, the third between the Meuse an.d 
Rhine. The first is extended along the Russian fron- 
tier, which runs upon all this flank ; Russia presses 
also upon her front in Silesia ; the third is situated at 
the corner of France ; there is nothing compact, with 
the exception of the German part; but this part is 
separated from the third by the interposition of the 
sovereignties of Saxony, of Hanover, and of Hesse. 
The first attack of Russia would separate the first 
part from the body of the monai-chy; which would, 
besides, be held in check upon its front by the Rus ' 
sian armies assembled in Poland; the first attack of 
France v^^ould deprive it of all the grand duchy of 
the Rhine ; and, in a war against Austria, Prussian 
Silesia would have to sustain the weight of all the 
Austrian power, at liberty to move and bear upon it 
from all the points of that monarchy ; for Austria has 
no dangerous neighbour either in Italy or in Germany. 
It is plainly impossible, therefore, to accumulate more 
embarrassments than Prussia has done; or to comprise 



56 

a greater number of vulnerable points. Prussia is, 
out of all proportion, too feeble against each of the 
three powers in her immediate vicinity, Russia, 
France, and Austria. 

There will always be found, therefore, a degree of 
constraint and dependance in her situation, resulting 
from the inferiority of her position ; and this position, 
which neither permits a complete developement, nor 
a perfectly free action, is the worst of all for a great 
state. Prussia, in future, can only make wars of al- 
liance, 1. With the rest of Europe against Russia j 
2. With the kingdom of the Netherlands against 
France ; 3. With Russia against Austria ; but, in this 
case, which would be the most dangerous, the ally or 
the enemy? 

The position of Prussia is, therefore, absolutely 
false, under all its relations; and this disastrous posi- 
tion is the effect, 1. Of the invasion of Poland by 
Russia ; 2. Of the sanction given it by the congress 
of Vienna. The augmentation of Russia rendered 
still more evident the necessity of strengthening Prus- 
sia ; she ought not to be found in a state inferior to 
that she occupied before the change ; she had lost al- 
most all the grand duchy of Warsaw, as well as the 
Polish part of Bialistok. It was requisite to give her, 
at the same time, an indemnification for her losses ; 
and an equivalent for the augmentations acquired by 
Austria and Russia; there were but two means of 
providing them. Saxony; or the countries vacant be- 
tween the Meuse and Rhine. The interest of Eu- 
rope designated the choice of the first as an exigency 
of primary necessity for the general security ; drop- 
ping from what clouds I know not, legitimacy caused 



57 

it to fall upon the countries of the Rhine ; thus the 
whole policy of Europe acquired a false bias. France 
will have to reproach herself eternally for the eftbrts 
she made in this circumstance ; the mistake aimed its 
first blow at her; she has already felt its effects, and 
she will encounter them often. The duchy of the 
Rhine will make Prussia for France what Silesia had 
made her for Austria. How, in these moments of 
lasting importance, when it was a question of found- 
ing the liberties of Europe, of fortifying its approaches 
against the dangers that soon or late will infallibly 
arrive from the direction of the North, how was it 
possible to hesitate a moment? A more fatal disre- 
gard of the common safety could never have been 
committed. 

This preponderant influence of Russia is already 
seen. She has already filled the place of France, with 
respect to Europe. If her sovereign spreads the veil 
of his personal virtues over the dangers of his power, 
and tempers the excess of the one by the greatness of 
the others, the preponderance exists not the less; the 
instrument is created, and the common fate will de- 
pend on the employment the hands, into which it may 
happen to fall, may please to make of it: an alarming 
perspective, whose dangers should have been diverted 
at any sacrifice ! Prussia is the first exposed to sus- 
tain the weight of the Russian power. The first blow 
will inevitably fall upon her. Berlin is only a few 
leagues from the Russian frontiers. Royal Prusuia is 
a sort of wedge locked in by Russia. In any war be- 
tween the two states, this country \^'ould be taken by 
the rear, together with all that should attempt to defend 
it. The Prussian fortresses, upon the Oder, are 



58 

small, and would be masked by a part of the Russian 
armies, whilst the others marched to the capital. 

Prussia cannot, therefore, defend herself with her 
own means, against Russia; consequently, on this side, 
Europe is unprotected. In case of war against Rus- 
sia, Prussia would act with the confederation of Lower 
Germany, Hesse, Hanover, and Mecklenburgh. But 
will the bond of this confederation have the same force 
in all its parts? Will the associates all feel an equal 
interest ? Will it not be enfeebled or swerved by dis- 
sensions, by fears, by the difference of the proximity 
of dangers, by affinities with the common enemy ? 
for Russia has penetrated into the secondary courts of 
Germany; and labours to establish herself there by 
alliances which cannot fail to be courted, as those of- 
fered by the family of Napoleon were, and would 
have been more and more, already very forward in 
German alliances: policy, soothed the murmurs of 
pride, and power imposed silence on the laws of he- 
raldry, so dear to Germany. 

Prussia, to be in a condition to guard, eifectually, 
the avenues of Germany against Russia, must be sus- 
tained by France and the kingdom of the Netherlands. 
These two states compose the reserve of Europe 
against Russia, and her van- guard against England; 
but the neighbourhood of Prussia will always more or 
less affect France, in a manner to deprive her alliance, 
which can only exist in extreme cases, of that entire 
frankness and alacrity of succour, that distance would 
have secured on her part. This succour, therefore, no 
longer refers to Prussia, but to the barrier against 
Russia. On the separation of France and of Prussia, 
by great distances, depended the alliance of the two 



59 

states; and their alienation is found inseparable f\'om 
their approach. In policy, would you produce union? 
Separate; place far apart. Would you create sepa- 
ration? Approach. 

This is what has been done for Prussia, with re- 
spect to France, by giving her an establishment at 
the gates of the latter. 

France, also, has soon had a foretaste of the sweets 
of this neighbourhood, in the demand of Sarrelouis. 
It was natural that Prussia should covet it, and vast- 
ly more. She has been placed by the side of France, 
under the cannon of French fortresses, without any 
defensive point; it was altogether natural that she 
should desire to acquire some point of support against 
a first attack; and Sarrelouis could not be refused, at a 
time when intreaties had become necessary to save 
the bridge of Jena.* France began to feel there all 
the extent of the fault committed at Vienna; by the 
high protection openly granted to Saxony, and by the 
application of an abstraction, mtruded into this affair. 

Prussia beyond, or Prussia on this side of the Rhine, 
is no longer the same power, in regard to France; and 
this fatal transposition has left them both without sin- 
cere allies ; for, unable to employ them mutually, they 
both equally want them. France could have no other 
ally but Prussia : and, on her part, Prussia could have 
no other than France. Their juxtaposition has dis- 
solved the cement that had united them. 

This partition of Prussia is so vicious in itself, that 
it appears to be one of the obstacles to which this 
state owes its inability to enjoy the constitution which 

* A new bridge over the Seine. 



60 

had been promised it. The distance of places are 
alleged, and the differences they establish between 
interests and manners ; no greater correspondence is 
found to exist between the inhabitants of Treves and 
Aix-la-Chapelle ; than there was between those of 
Hamburgh and of Rome, whom Napoleon brought 
together at Paris ; and even in this case, the moral 
alienation was much less considerable ; for, by the 
state of civilization, the relations between Hamburgh 
and Rome, are much more numerous than they can 
be between Elbing and Treves. In this arrangement, 
therefore, of the Prussian monarchy, all has been in- 
considerateness, danger for Europe, and privation of 
strength for itself. Succeeding ages will feel its weight, 
and will reproach the congress with its consequences. 

Before this political subversion, the direction of 
Prussia consisted, 1. In opposition to Austria; 2. In 
the protection of the Protestant league in Germany ; 
or rather in the protection of Germany itself against 
Austria ; 3. In alliance with France. The latter de- 
parted from it in the war of 1756, but to her great 
disadvantage. 

In the actual state of things all is changed; it is 
no longer against Austria that there can be any ne- 
cessity of defence, but against Russia; it is no longer 
Silesia, but Europe, that should be the object of soli- 
citude. Dangers are augmented, and have changed 
place ; they have substituted the necessity of alliance 
for that of enmity ; Prussia and Austria are invited by 
an equal and common interest to oppose Russia j 
whatever the one might lose, by strengthening Rus- 
sia, the other would lose with her : the weakening of 
the one would be that of the other, and always to the 



€1 

profit of the common enemy. His presence upon the 
frontiers of the two powers has rendered necessary to 
each other, and inseparable, these ancient rivals. 

Austria will no more attempt invasions upon the 
Germanic body ; no future wars of Bavaria will be 
seen. It would be only in case of a violent eruption 
of ambition on the part of Austria, a case not proba- 
ble, that Prussia would have to separate from her : 
until then she ought to make it her chief study 
to strengthen the ties which attach her to this state. 

Since the war of 1756, Prussia has always acted 
in concert with the states of lower Germany, royal 
Saxony excepted. Brunswick, Mechlenburgh, Hano- 
ver, the states of Hesse, the ducal houses of Saxony, 
have always marched by her side. This alliance is 
of a nature capable of maintaining itself, though at- 
tacked by principles of dissolution of later date. Since 
1795, Prussia, by virtue of the treaty of Basle, covered 
all these states by the line of demarcation ; thereby 
rendering them an important service ; for these states 
enjoyed seven years of peace amidst the conflagration 
of the rest of Germany. 

Prussia numbers a population of twelve millions of 
inhabitants. This population will experience great 
augmentation, from the same causes which are pro- 
pelling that of all the countries of Europe. This 
increase will take place principally upon the Prussian 
coasts of the Baltic; destined to become the centre 
of an immense commerce, especially by the revolu- 
tion of America. 

This part of Prussia must inevitably take a great 
part in it. Besides, she possesses great tracts of 
uncultivated lands in all the extent of country situated 

L 



62 

between the Rhine and the Oder. The wealth pro- 
duced by the extension of commerce will change 
these deserts into fertile fields; and consequently 
cover them with a numerous population. 

In time the Prussian population will rise very high, 
without however rivalling that of the great states in 
its vicinity, Austria, Russia and France; which depart 
from points much more elevated. 

Prussia is a nursery of excellent soldiers ; taken as 
a whole, this state forms a species of military school. 
The division of its parts will require that also of its 
forces; and, consequently, compel it to continue them 
upon a more considerable establishment than a greater 
compactness of its territory would have demanded. 
Prussia has to make head upon three principal points; 
Russia, Austria, and France. Concentration is no 
more possible in her army than in her territory. This 
army must serve her instead of fortresses ; be present 
at the same time every where; and consequently must 
be very numerous. As it will have to guard on all 
sides, and as the multiplicity of points of contact 
multiplies the occasions of contest, it must be always 
prepared to march. The armies of other states, more 
secure in their neighbourhood, have more chances 
of stability and of repose. The maintenance of so 
numerous an army will occasion a burdensome ex- 
pense to Prussia. She is not opulent; her greatest 
wealth is her economy ; and it will be impossible for 
her to make war without subsidies. In the ancient 
system they came alternately from France or from 
England, but especially from the latter; who has 
always more money than soldiers to give the conti- 
nent. It follows from this statement that Prussia is 



63 

not to be envied the advantages which the Congress 
of Vienna has conceded her; for they involve great 
embarrassments, and of a nature to impede her action 
continually. They condemn this power to a state of 
eternal vigilance, and an attitude of defence against 
all; subject herself to the umbrage of all; for her 
want of acquisitions is so evident, that she may always 
be supposed to hope or covet them. It is by its 
nature an expectant power. 



64 



AUSTRIA. 

What dangers has not Austria encountered, 
during the tempest of twenty years she has sus- 
tained ! What toils has she not endured before she 
was permitted to repose in the haven she is seen to 
occupy ! What a vigorous body, and what constan- 
cy! Her resources have seemed to increase in pro- 
portion as her territory was restricted ; she had the 
appearance of acquiring, orrather of receiving, instead 
of losing. The peace of Presburgh deprived her 
of the Venetian state, the Tyrol, of all her insulated 
possessions in Suabia, in Brisgaw, and in Svvitzerlandi 
she appeared at Wagram stronger than before. The 
peace of Vienna finally despoils her of a part of her 
ancient domains, and gives her for neighbour the 
kingdom of lUyria, composed of her shreds ; far from 
being dejected, she reappeared in the coalition with 
new and more numerous forces. It might be said 
that her fields are sown with the teeth of that dragon 
which caused the earth to yield harvests of weapons 
and of warriors. War appeared to be her element; 
her territory a manufactory of men ; and her breast to 
be covered by a cuirass impenetrable to adversity. 
A solitary example in the world of the force of per- 
severance and of habit. Austria owes nothing; to 
genius,* which seems to inspire her with fear still" 

• The present emperor of Austria excels principally in the manufacture of 
sealing wax ; which is saiil to have been his occupation when ihe French were 
at tlie gates of Vienna, in the wac w hich termioatf- ! rn thi surconder nf Maria 
Louisa. 



65 

more tlian with desire. Imagination neither sustains, 
nor torments her : but in a gradual movement Hke 
that of time, without shock as without parade ; with- 
out precipitation as without noise ; as a man, who 
by travelHng each day a hmited distance, would not 
the less accomplish, at length, his voyage round the 
world; so Austria in continual action, though slow, 
tends to one object, never loses sight of it, and final- 
ly attains it. Better fitted to blunt the shafts of ad- 
versity, than to create the chances which become the 
sources of great prosperity. Austria conducts her 
affairs with the quiet modesty of private fortunes; and 
like them, her fortunes flourish when some more bril- 
liant, sink and disappear. Her territory is immense ; 
the material of her power, without known limits, in- 
exhaustible in men, in horses, in means of subsis- 
tence ; insensible to a state of finances which else- 
where would compromise the state ; moving in penu- 
ry, as others in abundance ; she pursues her march 
through these aberrations, without declension, as with? 
out amendment. 

The stability which is found in the state, is met 
also in the ranks of society ; even ambition is regular 
and shuns the sallies, or the splendour, of which the ex- 
amples are so common elsewhere : all its routes are 
traced by the hne; and in this career, as in other coun- 
tries upon the roads, the miles may be counted. 

Austria is a country of order, formed by habit. 
Manners have created it; they sustain it; and, the ac- 
tivity with which the blood circulates in this country, 
does not menace it. 

During three hundred years Austria has been al- 
most always in arms. The greatest reverses were 



66 

always for her a prelude to the greatest prosperity, 
and the introduction to an augmentation of power. 
The protestant league and the Swedes attack her, and 
cause her to tremble; Ferdinand II. re-establishes 
her solidity, and restores her the domination of Ger- 
many. 

The Hungarians and Turks dismember, and pre- 
pare to crush her j they are before Vienna; and, from 
this point of depression, Leopold sets out to balance 
and check the fortune of Louis XIV. Maria Theresa 
is, at one moment, without the patrimony of her fa- 
thers, and without a refuge ; a few years after, she 
overshadowed vast countries with a majestic and for- 
midable figure. Three times in the space of ten years, 
her grandson saw his capital menaced, or rather in- 
vaded; Belgium escapes from his grasp; Venice, 
given for its ransom ; the Milanese, and the ancient 
inheritances of his fathers, are taken from him ; four 
years after, all is reconquered, garnished by precious 
accessories ; so great in Austria is the force of perse- 
vering regularity ; and that of a soil exuberant in pro- 
ductions. 

It is the union of these different elements which 
constitutes the robust temperament of Austria. Who- 
ever purposes to contest her, should commence by 
reflecting that he will find men immoveable in their 
line ; insensible to adversity, over whom it has no 
more power than imagination; and a soil inexhausti- 
ble, that will furnish the exigencies of a long contest; 
and that he will have to combat at once both nature 
and men. This consideration induced Frederic II. 
to conclude the peace of Hubertsburgh; struck, as a 
man of his genius must have been, at seeiog op- 



67 

posed to him, after seven years of defeats, the new 
armies of Maria Theresa, more firmly constituted than 
those with which he had strewn so many fields of 
battle. 

When, since 1800, France had become the domi- 
nant power in the west of Europe, Austria, apprized 
by costly experience of the dangers of contact with 
this giant, embraced the system called oriental; 
that is to say, that of keeping at a distance from 
France, and from every place subject to her influence, 
to fortify herself on the side of Turkey. The return 
of the ancient system, in consequence of the reduc- 
tion of France within her ancient limits, has brought 
Austria back to her former policy; that of extending 
herself in Italy by the entire renunciation of Belgium. 
By the peace of Vienna in 1809, the frontier of Aus- 
tria had been restricted to the Inn, in Germany, on 
the side of Bavaria; and to the Saave, on the side of 
Italy ; she lost the Tyrol and Saltzburgh, united to 
Bavaria. This state became stronger than it had 
ever been ; it thus acquired a defensive barrier against 
Austria. The creation of the kingdom of Westpha- 
lia, of the grand duchy of Frankfort, and the confe- 
deration of the Rhine, had excluded Austria from the 
policy of Germany. 

All this has disappeared in a day ; and, with the 
exception of some vain titles, and a few inconsidera- 
ble domains, Austria has resumed her ancient exist- 
ence in Germany. 

From the moment the Germanic empire was creat- 
ed anew, she necessarily resumed her ancient place ; 
consequently, as before thfe change, she occupies all 
the space comprehended between the lake of Con- 



6S 

stance and the gates of Belgrade ; between Alexan- 
dria upon the Tanaro and the frontiers of Turkey. 
This space is very extensive, peopled by inhabitants 
of various origin, without reciprocal relations or af- 
fections. Austria resembles a confederation of differ- 
ent states, rather than a single state. A common so- 
vereignty with a different country; where the prince 
and the subjects are united by a common tie, which 
does not extend to the subjects between themselves; 
thus the Hungarian and the Italian may be equally 
attached to the sovereign of Austria, without the 
mutual connexion which exists between the inhabi- 
tants of Bohemia and of Austria. 

The population of Austria amounts to thirty mil- 
lions of inhabitants. This equals that of France, and 
exceeds what Austria has ever possessed. This po- 
pulation is destined to increase greatly, especially in 
all the Polisli, Hungarian, and Sclavonian parts ; which 
offer great vacant tracts, in which the means of sub- 
sistence are very abundant. The population of Aus- 
tria being entirely continental, can only increase by 
agriculture; whose effects are always less rapid than 
those of commerce and of navigation. Besides, Aus- 
tria will participate less directly in the advantages of 
the emancipation of America ; because she has but a 
small number of ports; which, besides, are situated 
upon a sea remote from the route of the great com- 
merce. The name of gulph is well applied to the 
Adriatic; as if to apprize that it is not to be consider- 
ed altogether as a sea. It seems to exist chiefly for 
the inhabitants of its shores; and Austria occupies 
only a part of it. 

The protectorate of Corfu, and the other Ionian 



69 

islands, having, in reality, given these islands to Eng- 
land; this position being supported by that of Malta, 
appropriates the Adriatic to England, and renders it, 
in effect, an English roadstead. 

Austria is mistress of Italy. Venice, the Milanese, 
the Alexandrin, are her immediate domains. Parma 
must revert to her; an Austrian prince reigns in Tus- 
cany ; another is expected at Modena ; is not this be-^ 
ing completely the master in Italy ? for, in comparison 
with this, the few other powers which exist there are 
as nothing. Austria has taken, therefore, in this coun- 
try the place recently occupied by France ; in this 
great change, there has only been a transportation of 
the seat of power from the shores of the Mediterra- 
nean to those of the Adriatic ; the only remarkable 
difference is, that the French occupation did not ex- 
clude a great Italian power, such as resulted from the 
creation of the kingdom of Italy; the certain prelude 
of a more extensivj^creation, that of all Italy in a sin- 
gle sovereignty ; the French sovereignty momentarily 
exercised over Italy, prepared the eternal liberty of the 
Italians, by causing it to be known and valued in this 
beautiful region ; on the contrary, the Austrian domi- 
nation confirms its annihilation, and gives to the depen- 
dance of Italy the seal of eternity. By this the ancient 
tomb that began to open has been closed anew ; by 
this, the country which held the world in chains, is 
sentenced to bear eternally the yoke of others. 

The sacrifice of Italy, of this so illusU-ious, so in- 
teresting a portion of Europe, so full of monuments 
and recollections, what claims has it not upon every 
breast friendly to the order of human society, and 
sensible to the woes of humanity! 

M 



70 

This unfortunate country has been, of late, the 
theatre of great violations of this nature. If this in- 
vasion of nations, and giving them for the benefit of 
strangers, would admit of excuse, it could only be 
that of the necessity of strengthening Austria against 
Russia; which should also be done for Prussia, since 
the pressure against both is equal ; eflPorts are required 
to render their burden less oppressive, and to give 
them the means to guard more effectually the avenues 
of Europe ; for, henceforth, this charge will devolve 
on these two powers. 

To this fatal augmentation, therefore, of Russia, it 
is always necessary to return whenever any disorder 
in the establishment of continental Europe is per- 
ceived ; it is felt in Italy as in Germany ; in the king- 
dom of the Netherlands as in the Milanese. It has 
deranged every thing in the political system; and as 
in the shock of bodies, the first impulse communi- 
cates itself to all the chain of ci^itiguous bodies in 
swift succession; so in the new order of Europe, the 
steps made by Russia towards the centre of this re- 
gion, have forced Austria and Prussia to make cor- 
respondent movements on their part. All has become 
displaced in consequence of a primary combination 
incompatible with the good order of the rest. 

The enmities of Austria against France and Prus- 
sia are at an end; the enemy is no longer on this side; 
the enmities between powers exist not in hearts, but 
in interests. 

At this day Francis I. and Charles V. would be 
seen to embrace; as also Frederic and the emperor 
Joseph; because all the motives of their ancient ha- 
treds are dissipated and replaced by very active mo- 



71 

lives of union. There is no longer ah Austrian Bel- 
gium, no longer a house of Austria controlling the 
Germanic body; France has no longer, therefore, rea- 
son to fear Austria; in Italy, the state of Piedmont 
and the Alps are two barriers fitted to continue their 
interests widely separated. All the causes of their 
ancient divisions have, therefore, disappeared. Prus- 
sia, on her part, has nothing to demand of Austria ; 
the saying of Joseph, " there is 720 longer a Silesia^^ 
has been realized; it is become the axiom of Austria. 
On the side of Austria, Prussia will, in future, only 
have to preserve what she has acquired. She could 
not attack her without rendering herself more feeble 
against Russia. Single, she can effect nothing against 
Austria; will she form alliance with Russia? but 
would not this enormous fault be punished instantly 
by the desertion, as by the reproaches of all Germany, 
and of the rest of Europe ; to whom she w^ould be 
justly responsible for the diminution of strength that 
would result from this desertion of the general inter- 
ests, in favour of the common enemy ! 

It cannot be doubted that, in future, all connexion 
with Russia will have the appearance of a conspiracy 
against the rest of Europe ; and should Prussia ever 
unite with Russia against Austria, this combination 
will be attributed to the darkest recollections, and to 
the most sinister projects. 

When Turkey yet retained some energy, she gave 
occupation to Austria; as Prussia has likewise done, 
since the former has been eclipsed. 

From the time of Soliman the Great to the days of 
Maria Theresa, the Turks have given much employ- 
ment to Austria; but, sunk in the deepest slumber, 



72 

obstinately resisting all civilization, and all progress in 
the human understanding, these quietists are no lon- 
ger formidable to any. There is one way only to have 
nothing to fear from them ; this is never to set foot 
amongst them ; for, in that case, they would be seen 
like the Spaniards, to pass from this profound repose 
to the most terrible awakening. Such is the charac- 
ter of Orientals and of Africans, who never go from 
home but whom it is also temerity to visit. 

Italy will be more productive for Austria in tributes 
than in soldiers. Her exactions will not be made in 
the form of conscriptions; a strong body of Italian 
troops would excite her distrust; the difference of 
manners, and of language, would present obstacles to 
the incorporation, with utility, of Italians in Polish, 
German, or Hungarian corps. 

This intermixture would be unnatural; and who 
would not commiserate Italians transplanted upon the 
ramparts of Temeswar, and Peters-Waradin; with 
ears accustomed to the harmonious voices of Ausonia, 
compelled to listen to tlie bowlings of Turks; con- 
demned to combat with Cossacs, and all the hordes 
that flock from the deserts of Scythia ! What a bar- 
barous transplantation ! What a cruel destiny ; and 
how can we refrain from commiserating, from the 
bottom of the heart, those for whom it may be re- 
served! 



73 



GERMAN EMPIRE. 

This ancient empire was wrecked during the wars 
of Napoleon. Austria abandoned a title, which had 
caused her much vexation, and added little to her real 
power; it had created her more enemies than servants; 
and as the sword is always the emblem of the Cesars, 
this empire was found on the side of the strongest 
sword; consequently, the protector of the confedera- 
tion of the Rhine had become, in reality, the regent of 
the new German empire. This confederation extend- 
ed on the south, from the Rhine to the Inn; on the 
north, from the Rhine to the Elbe. In this new or- 
der, the number of sovereignties being diminished, 
added a new principle of strength: those which re- 
mained had become more important. They were 
more compact, as well as less broken by including 
the territory of others; a second principle of strength 
and of peace. No mixture of Austrian or Prussian 
possessions was remarked in them: and, consequent- 
ly there was more liberty for the princes of these dif- 
ferent states. Austria commenced at the Inn, and 
at the Saltza; Prussia, at the Elbe. It ceased to be 
as in times past, and as at present, when these pow- 
ers have possessions in Germany every where, and 
frontiers, no where. The kingdom of Westphalia; the 
grand dutchies of Francfort, and of Wurtzburgh; the 



74 

three states, of Bavaria, of Baden, and of Wurteni- 
burgh, replaced the patch-work of sovereignties that 
had covered Germany. This country resembled a 
garment formed of shreds, and shaded with different 
colours. By the confederation ©f the Rhine, this 
number was diminished, and the tint had acquired 
uniformity. Perhaps even, the number of these so- 
vereignties continued still too great: for example, the 
utility of a grand dutchy of Francfort was not percep- 
tible; and assuredly its creation in the mind of Napo- 
leon had more reference to sentiments of personal af- 
fection for him he invested with it, than to a real po- 
litical combination: a mode of operation of infinite 
danger, that of substituting affections, and sentiments, 
to calculations of political order. The latter being of 
a durable nature, admits not of motives whose nature, 
on the contrary, is transitory and evanescent. 

The confederation had scoured Germany of a resi- 
due of its anarchical rust, the immediate principali- 
ties: they were to Germany, what the exemptions 
from the jurisdiction of ordinaries were to the reli- 
gious order; embarrassments, and nothing more. 
States, such as those of Bavaria and of Wurtemburgh, 
contributed much more to render Germany strong 
and imposing; than a congregation of nominal princes, 
without states, without subjects, burdensome to the 
trivial number they possessed; whose entire existence 
referred to themselves, without any relation to the 
public order. Nothing in the world was less inter- 
esting than these petty princes. Their suppression 
meliorated also the moral state of Germany; for there- 
by numberless causes of divisions disappeared, local 
affections diminished, views and ideas were enlarged, 



75 

the German soil became more the soil of countiy. 
Commerce gained equally by this suppression, which 
is cramped by narrow limits, and prospers most in 
wide spaces; such as are formed by great sovereign- 
ties, enfranchised from the multiplicity of barriers, 
raised by the diversity ai^ multif)licity of sovereign- 
ties. * 

It is true that Austria and Prussia had disappeared 
from the German confederation; but did these powers 
add to its real force? Did not their divisions tend to 
diminish it? By their constant opposition, had they 
not dissolved the ties of German union ; were not 
they the cause that in Germany there were no longer 
Germans, but only Prussians and Austrians; and 
much fewer of the latter than of the former: for it can- 
not be disguised that the greatest part of Germany 
leaned towards Prussia, as towards its point of support 
and defence against Austria. These two powers, in- 
dependent of the empire, did they consider themselves 
as existing for it, in the same degree that it should 
exist for them? Was it for herself that each of them 
seemed to cling to it still, more than not to have the 
appearance of yielding it to others? Thus we may 
measure the degree of interest with which it had in- 
spired Austria, by the willingness she discovered to 
detach from it, and, as it were, to lay down the em- 
pire: as by the little eagerness she has shewn to re^ 
sume the burden of her ancient rank in Germany. It 
might be asked, though the solution of the problem 
be not difficult, if a collection of sovereigns of a se- 
condary order, had a greater interest in submitting to 
a tutelage, from which it was impossible, in any case, 



76 

to withdraw, on the part of great powers agitating 
continually in the midst of it ; than in accepting the 
protection of a power separated from it, not interfering 
with its interior, and having no direct interest with it? 
The latter protection, is it not, by its nature, more 
disinterested and more persmmal for the client? 

This question of the German confederation is more 
comphcated than it seems to be, at the first glance. It 
has been resolved of late, in the same manner that 
so many others have been, by irritation, or by incon- 
sideration; both bases of bad calculations. The mi- 
litary and contributive dictatorship of Napoleon would 
have found a term: it was not of a nature to endure 
for ever: for after an establishment is consolidated, it 
is not natural to act, as at the moment of its formation? 
when fears are dissipated, as when they betray them- 
selves on all sides; when the edifice is completed, as 
in the time of its consruction. Napoleon was building. 
He associated the confederation of the Rhine to his 
labours; because it was associated to his general sys- 
tem, and was to share the fruits of it. Assuredly the 
confederation would have enjoyed in this system a 
better fate than that which it owes to the new. Bava- 
ria would not have lost all that Austria has recovered; 
she would have had frontiers: the state of Baden would 
not have been subject to the molestations it has ex- 
perienced. 

The system of Napoleon had evidently two branches; 
1. A guarantee for France against the coalition of 
Prussia, of Austria, and of Russia ; 2. The establish- 
ment of a barrier against Russia. Napoleon had 
Russia and her dangers always in view ; his hostility 



77 

was not personal to Russia, but in the cause of Eu- 
rope. 

Two principles constantly governed and directed 
him; the necessity of arresting the English power 
upon sea, and the power of Russia upon the continent. 
He considered its extent and dangers for others as 
well as for himself. The event has fully justified this 
calculation; for he has fallen by the shafts lanched 
from these two bows, which he was unable to unstring. 
In these two relations, the plans of Napoleon were 
even more European than French; it was neither 
ambition nor hatred by which he was animated against 
Russia; he had nothing to gain personally in a war 
witliher: he had received no injuries from her; he 
had nothing to fear from her ; personally he bore sen- 
timents of high respect and esteem towards her so- 
vereign : he was actuated alone by an European sen- 
timent; that which caused him to feel the necessity 
of placing at the gates of Russia barriers of sufficient 
strength to arrest the torrent ; he had located them in 
places the most suitable to this employment; and 
committed them to hands the most interested to de- 
fend them; and therefore the most sure. The plan 
was vast, and salutary for all; sound in principle, but 
disorderly in its execution : source of safety for Eu- 
rope, and of ruin for its author. It must be left for 
time to reveal whether Germany will find it better to 
meet the advanced posts of Russia upon the Oder, 
and the frontiers of Moravia, than upon the Dnieper 
and the Dwina; whether she will be better defended 
by little sovereignties in great number, than by great 
in little number. Therein lies the whole question 



78 

respecting Germany. The Germanic body is by its 
nature in a state of perpetual tutelage ; it always needs 
a protector against some state or other. 

Sweden, France, Prussia, have successively exer- 
cised this protectorate. France occupied it with pre- 
potence by the confederation of the Rhine. The 
height of the protection was compensated by its soli- 
dity; and, (since Germany is devoted to a state of 
eternal pupilage,) ii might as well have been that of 
France as any other. 

The congress of Vienha has re-established, not the 
ancient empire, but a confederation, in Germany ; for 
the empire, speaking properly, has disappeared ; there 
is no longer an emperor of Germany ; but the body 
remains after the disappearance of its chief, and sur- 
vives the loss of its head. 

The population, comprehended in the confedera- 
tion, equals thirty millions of inhabitants. A federal 
bond unites its members ; common laws regulate all 
the parts of the association, determine supplies, assess 
contributions, provide the means of defence and those 
of execution. 

Germany, placed between France and Russia, must 
keep on her guard against tliem both ; she can effect 
nothing against Russia directly, with whom she is 
not in contact; and who, on her part, could not reach 
Germany till after having overthrown the armies of 
Prussia and of Austria; in this direction these two pow- 
ers are the outworks of the German empire; this is what 
ought to continue it so strictly united with them ; for 
if they were to succumb in the conflict with Russia, 
it would be overwhelmed. Upon the Rhine, th^ 



79 

contact with France creates for Germany the necessity 
of a different system. On this side she must act in 
person. Too many recollections invite Germany to 
multiply her precautions ; thus she will form a large 
federal army ; she will erect fortresses to rival those of 
France ; she will oppose Landau, Mayence, Luxem- 
burgh, and other ramparts besides, to the girdle of 
fortifications with which France is strengthened upon 
this frontier ; thus, by continuing to cover themselves 
with ramparts judiciously distributed, they will be- 
come finally insulated, and reciprocally out of the reach 
of attack. It is clear that the suspicions of Germany 
will, during a long time, be directed against France ; 
it is the consequence of all that has passed in the 
course of the last twenty years ; past injuries excite 
vigilance against their renewal. As yet, Russia has 
only been felt as the means of liberation ; the princes 
reinstated by the coalition, the princes emancipated 
by it, and freed from the tutelage of Napoleon, may 
think themselves bound to show much gratitude to- 
wards Russia, as well as much rancour and umbrage 
against France ; these two sentiments will not soon 
be effaced, and the policy of Germany will be warped 
by them. The confederation is raising a considerable 
army ; this barrier also is marshalled against France, 
not to conquer, but to hold her excluded from the 
general policy; which, in future, will be arranged in 
Germany, between Russia, Prussia, and Austria; it 
is this triumvirate of power which will decide every 
thing in time to come, upon the continent. 

The persevering remonstrances of the ex-princes, 
are the thorns of the internal policy of Germany; they 



80 

are met every where, with their pretensions and their 
complaints; a political excrescence, occupied exclu- 
sively with their personal existence; they weary and 
embarrass both princes and people; their agony is as 
clamorous as their lives were obscure; and they pre- 
sent to the world the scandalous spectacle of the com- 
bat of the feudal and useless sovereignty — against the 
sovereignty that is social and necessary. 



81 



FRANCE. 

Oh grief! to see banished to an extremity of Eu- 
rope, as if exiled, as if proscribed, receiving her laws 
and destinies from others, the power which for fifteen 
years has given the word of command to Europe ! 
Napoleon, what hast thou made of us? how had we 
deserved to see thee enrich with objects which had 
cost us so dear, those who are about to become our 
oppressors? how couldst thou forget that there are 
ranks which must be retained under the penalty of a 
precipitous fall 5 that the excess of power has no safe- 
guard but in the continuance of power; and that opr 
pression is always the vengeance that awaits oppres- 
sion ; thou hast condemned us to the reaction of the 
world; and what all reaction brings with it need not 
be told ! 

Napoleon was the key of the vault, in the new edi- 
fice that was erected in Europe ; when he fell, the 
whole structure was necessarily involved in his ruin. 

Never did greater interests repose upon one head ; 
never head appeared less to feel their importance. By 
this neglect, the world and the human intellect have 
been compromised. 

An ever memorable example of the imprudence of 
nations who place their destiny, like an annuity^ upon 
the fortune or the genius, however brilliant, of a sin- 



82 

gle man ; a cruel lesson, well fitted to teacli them tO' 
take a near survey of the manner in which affairs are 
transacted amongst them. 

The French empire comprised more than forty- two 
minions of inhabitants. 

France at present may contain thirty millions. 

The French empire enjoyed a revenue of eleven 
hundred millions of francs. 

France has, of certain revenue, six hundred and 
fifty millions. 

Never did a state lose so much at once. It is the 
first time since the reign of Henry IV. that France 
has retrograded, or lost an inch of ground upon the 
continent. 

Cardinal de Fleury, when more than eighty years 
of age, a pacific and unarmed conqueror, added 
Lorrain to the ancient domains of France; and Louis 
XV., never reproached for the love of conquest and 
aggrandizements, acquired Corsica. 

I am aware it is said that these acquisitions were 
conquests, and conquests of the revolution; which 
rendered them odious to some, and indifferent to 
others. But I would fain learn what America is for 
Spain, India for England, Poland for Russia and her 
fellow partitioners. Is there not also something to ob- 
ject to the certificates of origin of these possessions; 
and if the acquisitions of France dated not quite from 
the transactions of the golden age; it appears, that, 
even in the others also, there might be found some 
traces of the age of iron. But such is the measure 
of the judgments pronounced upon the events of the 
last five-and-twenty years. All is estimated by public 
clamour, and the word revohition seems to have dis- 



83 

pensed with tiic duty, or deprived of the faculty, of 
reasoning. 

It is not here intended to rouse regrets or to exas- 
perate irritations ; far from that ; it is destined only to 
awaken the sentiments which the spectacle of great 
catastrophes, whether they overwhelm states, or whe- 
ther they affect individuals, is fitted to inspire. Men, 
in too great numbers, without France as well as with- 
in, have suffered by these triumphs, or profited by 
these reverses ; sometimes they are irritated against 
her because she has been great without them; let them 
learn by their own regrets to share those of a great 
people ; and, returning to themselves, let them listen 
to the voice that reminds them of the words of the 
most tender of poets : 

Sunt LacrjmsB rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt. 

France appertains to neither of the divisions which 
form the political state of Europe. By her geogra- 
phical position she is detached from them both ; her 
territory, her peculation, her language, have little 
conformity with the corresponding particulars that 
are remarked to the north, and to the south of this 
country. The division of the north extends to the 
banks of the Rhine, and continues till it expires at the 
feet of the Alps. 

This space includes the nations of the north, and 
of Germany; who have more affinity with each other 
than with the inhabitants of the south. The division 
of the south commences at the Alps, and at the Pyre- 
nees. There, are found other manners, another sky, 
other productions; all as foreign to France as to Ger- 
many. France forms, as it were, the shade which 
marks the gradation of the people that inhabit the 



north to those of the south. The French bear no 
greater resemblance to the one than to the other. It 
suffices to remark the conformation of a Frenchman, 
to hear him speak, to observe him when he moves 
and acts, to recognise in him a member foreign to 
the famihes of the north and of the south. 

France is very populous; and experience proves 
that she will still increase in population ; what has 
taken place throughout Europe, manifests itself equal- 
ly in France ; she is not less liberally endowed by 
nature than the other states with which she shares the 
benefits of increasing civilization. This is a practi- 
cal truth no longer contested, but by the men who 
are indignant that the revolution should not have 
combined all kinds of \vrongs; and who w^ould be 
pleased to have a right to accuse it of having exca- 
vated the tomb of the human race, with the exception 
of their own. However afflicting this truth may ap- 
pear to this class of men, it is not the less certain; 
one thing only remains to be determined, and this is 
of importance to France; to ascertain the proportion 
of this increase, as it compares with that of other 
nations. 

The wealth of France is very great, and must be 
Still greater. The country that furnishes Europe a 
part of the enjoyments most essential to her gratifica- 
tion, will be associated in the prosperity of other na- 
tions. Of this a judgment may be formed by the 
sum of the tributes paid by Europe to the attractions 
of her climate, of her arts, of the multiplied charms of 
her capital. These tributes exceed annually the sums 
that France became obligated to pay, temporarily, to 
strangers. But the latter were, by nature of a limited 



85 

duration ; and the nature of the others is to increase 
progressively. They will more than compensate the 
inequality of the commercial balance that France has 
lost with her colonies : it is Europe, and especially 
England, that is now the colony of France : this coun- 
try is a thousand times more visited by strangers than 
it was before the revolution : and, as the French feel 
not the same desire to see and to transport themselves 
out of their country, they retain the profits attached to 
the successive rotation of the passage, and of the stay, 
of strangers amongst them. 

To this must be added the dev elopements, and the 
elasticity, that France will owe to the new springs of 
action she has lately acquired, and which manifest 
themselves in her bosom; liberty and industry. The 
Ltter, it cannot be denied, each day makes rapid ad- 
vances: liberty, who fructifies all, will not be more 
sterile for France than she is for all those who exer- 
cise their talents under the shelter of her tutelary al- 
ters. Genius, free to display itself is always creative: 
as I have said before, it acts in every direction, and 
from each of its excursions brings home some new 
harvest. If all the arbitrary, restrictive, and oppres- 
sive governments have, during so many ages, been 
unable to prevent the French genius from creating 
so many master-pieces; what may not be expecttd 
from it, when, under the auspices of a government 
whose essence is liberty, it may develope all its fa- 
culties, and reap the reward of its efforts ! 

Since the reign of Francis I. the epoch of the out- 
line of a political system in Europe, France has always 
exercised a great influence upon the continent. Op- 
posed from that period to the house of Austria, which 



36 

reigned in Spain, in Italy, in a part of Germany, 
France naturally was placed at the head of those, and 
their number was not small, who had reason to fear 
this colossus. Francis I. in spite of religious preju- 
dices, which at that time had so much power, made 
alliance with Soliman against Charles V. — The Ca- 
tholic prince, who gave the example of burning pro- 
testants at home, united with the Turks against the 
Catholic emperor, who consumed himself in efforts 
against the same protestants. Francis was at the 
same time his ally against them, and that of the Turks 
against him; receiving thus from policy a double di- 
rection, and as it were, a double existence. The 
wars of religion, by restricting the attention of France 
to her internal agitations, detached her during a long^ 
time from the general policy.* 

She resumed her place in it, under Henry IV. and 
took a larger part in its transactions than at any for- 
mer period ; under the able inspiration of this prince, 



• Such is the ordinary effect of factions. They love country only as the ob- 
ject and the means of domination, and properly speaking factions have no 
country; for them country is there where is power; where is control; and for 
them must have been invented the selfish axiom : ubi bene, ibi patria. In the 
time of the league, an appeal was made to Spain ; Paris was surrendered to her; 
the counsels of France were abandoned to her; secret notes were addressed 
to the Demon of the Soxithi to this cruel king, to this gloomy tyrant, who from 
the recesses of a palace, invisible himself to all eyes, covered the world with 
intrigues, with flames, and with blood. The league, faithful to the same spirit, 
did likewise; but also, unfaithful to country, they made a second appeal to 
Spain; the envoys of the latter appeared in the midst of the parliament of 
Paris. Cardinal de Retz has preserved for our use the secret notes by which 
this party implored these noble auxiliaries ; with the recital of the mystifica- 
tion he put upon this grave body, reduced by him to the disgrace of receiving 
with pomp the vagabond, who had just received his letters of credence at the 
gate of the palace, from the very hand of this factious prelate. The history of 
factions is every where, and equally, but the oblivion of couritiy, and an invita-, 
tion to strangers. 



87 

she was on the eve of founding in Europe a general 
order, retraced in some of its features by the actual 
times. But of all others the Cardinal de Richelieu 
gave the greatest extension to the French influence, 
by his combined action with the Protestants of Ger- 
many, and against the Protestants of France. With 
the former as a politician, against the latter as a priest 
and minister, he displayed in tliis double action the 
sagacity and the compass of views which characterize 
the real statesman. Inviting from the extreme of 
the north the great Gustavus, and his illustrious com- 
panions in arms, he achieved the creation of a coun- 
terpoise to the power of Austria, and thus became 
the real founder of the European system. For a 
space of fifty years Lewis XIV. filled Europe with 
his pomp, his projects, and his enterprises. The ge- 
nius of William was required to arrest him ; and the 
weight of Europe directed by the hands of an Eugene, 
and a Marlborough, to make him bend. If he sunk, 
it was with glory; and even in his fall he endowed his 
family with the throne of Spain and of America ; a 
great power is not extinguished all at once : Lewis 
XV. graced by the reflected glory of his prede- 
cessor, sustained by favour of this twilight the con • 
sideration of the French power. The eclipse was 
not pronounced till the epoch of the peace of 1763, 
and was completed amid the quarrels of the Janse- 
nists and of the parliament, and the frantic debauch- 
eries of the close of this reign. The government of 
that day resembled those men who seek by intoxica- 
tion to forget the derangement of their affairs. These 
profligate excesses covered with a veil of opprobrium 
and impotency the latter years of Lewis XV. During 



8g 

this period Catherine, Frederic, Maria Theresa, dis- 
posed of the destinies of Europe : before these great 
names all others grew pale; the star of the north 
alone illuminated the political horizon; and Frdhce 
might have recognised in the partition of Poland, pro- 
jected, decreed and executed, without her concur- 
rence and before her eyes, a formal proclamation of 
her nullity and loss of consideration. Never had she 
been braved so openly. Lewis XVI. had marched 
in better ways, by improving the French marine; and 
by contributing to found in America a redeeming 
state for the rest of Europe, against the exclusive do- 
mination of the sea by England. But placed on a 
soil that already began to tremble from the combus- 
tion of fires that raged beneath its surface, this unfor- 
tunate prince was unable to maintain the indepen- 
dence of Holland against Prussia; or to defend Tur- 
key against the eagles of Russia and of Austria, 
pouncing upon this ancient ally of France. She was 
obliged to resign to Sweden, to England, and to Prus- 
sia, the honour of reducing the devourers to more 
moderate sentiments. At the peace of Teschen, 
which terminated the contests for the succession of 
Bavaria, France appeared in the attitude she had al- 
w^ays maintained, whenever Austria had sought to 
encroach upon the German powers of an inferior 
order. 

At this epoch the Austrian influence had not yet 
gained the ascendancy at Versailles it obtained in the 
last ten years of this reign ; abandoned to Austria in 
a manner to alarm many minds, and to mislead many 
others. Alliance with Prussia was the ancient policy 
of France. This union, though resulting from the 



89 * 

nature of things, was the continuation of the work of 
Cardinal de Richelieu and its transposition from Swe- 
den to Prussia; who filled the place the former had 
occupied. A mistress, and a favourite raised by the 
muse of flattery, were permitted to ruin the work of 
Richelieu and of Oxenstiern. Singular destiny of 
human works; cruel but inevitable effect of absolute 
governments, enfranchised from all responsibility ; in 
which resolutions that may involve the destiny of states 
are seen to depend on tlie vilest motives; because they 
are protected by obscurity, and are inspired and exe- 
cuted by men who draw only from corrupt sources. 
Therein was placed the principle of the inferiority of 
France in respect to England. How, with plans 
formed in this impurity, should France have been 
able to sustain the combat against an order of things 
which called to the head of affairs a Chatham, and 
his son, still more illustrious than himself, with a 
multitude of the most enlightened men of their nation; 
who kindling and enlightening their own genius by 
the fire of public discussion, covered with their light- 
nings, and protected with their force, the country 
which committed itself to their direction. If for the 
last hundred years France had enjoyed a government 
constituted like that of England, she also would have 
had her Chathams, and her Pitts ; she would have 
had nothing to envy in the glory or in the possessions- 
of her rival. Men were not wanting in France, 
but the government was wanting to men, who, to 
serve it as well as England is served, only waited 
to be employed. The proof has been given of the 
presence of these men in France by the secret cor- 
respondence discovered in the iron archives. The 



work dra-wn up under the direction of the count de 
Broglie by Favier, proves that political genius was 
not extinct in France; and, that it only waited for the 
fetters to be broken which held it in captivity, to de- 
velope itself to the world. 

The political system of France has taken a new 
face. It is no longer what it was before the revolu- 
tion, still less what it was under Napoleon; these 
grandeurs are to be forgotten ; they have vanished ; 
we must learn to accommodate our desires to our 
means, and regulate ourselves by the latter. The 
states that environ France are no longer the ancient 
states which were found at her gates. 

The states which might have sustained her are no 
longer the same in themselves, any more than with 
relation to her. 

Rival states have acquired immense augmentations. 
Auxiliary states have declined in the same propor- 
tions. The moral dispositions of some nations have 
also experienced a change in their application to 
France. 

All, therefore, is completely changed for France, 
and, consequently, she finds herself in a political si- 
tuation absolutely new ; which requires to be well ob- 
served and well understood to prevent the most fatal 
mistakes. 

The interest of this question is very great. It leaves 
not the liberty of refusing ourselves to the develope- 
ments fitted to place it in its clearest light. x\ccording 
to this view of their importance I proceed to give 
them. 



91 



CHAPTER III. 

Ancient System of France upon the Continent. 

Alliance with Prussia against Austria; sup* 
port of the German empire against Austria. 

Alliance wi'th Sweden and Turkey against Russia; 
and against her, also, alliance with Prussia. 

Belgium and the dutchy of Luxemburgh were un- 
der the hand of France, a pledge of responsibility for 
the conduct of Austria. 

These distant provinces could not be timely de- 
fended ; the succours must have come from afar ; one 
year of war had absorbed twenty years of ordinary 
revenue. This species of continental colony held 
Austria in a sort of dependance on France. It was 
to enfranchise herself from this that Austria project- 
ed the fatal treaty of 1756 5 this act, which was the 
master piece of Austrian policy, was the last term of 
the blindness of the cabinet of Versailles. Richelieu, 
Torcy, d'Avaux, all that had been eminent in the 
French diplomacy, should have started in the tomb 
at the rumour of this blunder of their successors in 
the cabinet of France. Austria, thus liberated froni 
the jealous observation of France, might abandon 
herself to all the gratifications of a persevering ambi- 
tion. Sure of the support, or, at the worst, of the 
neutrality of her ancient rival, she was now at liberty 



92 

to apply her entire attention to the two great powers 
of the north; Prussia and Russia. 

Too feeble to counterbalance them alone, as ap- 
prized by the disasters of the war of 1756, she began 
to league with them; and extended them the hand 
while she concealed the sw^ord. Thence the partition 
of Poland, carried into effect; thence the meditated 
and attempted partition of Turkey; which would 
have been realized but for the vigorous opposition of 
England and of Prussia. What France, chained by 
her treaty, had interdicted herself from doing, a feeble 
monarch of the north, counselled only by his courage 
and the weight of circumstances, was seen ready to 
effect. Gustavus, darting with the rapidity of light- 
ening against the insatiable invader of Turkey, had 
saved Constantinople by tlie invasion of Petersburgh; 
if manoeuvres, too well combined, had not arrested 
his glorious career, and turned upon himself the wea- 
pon he directed against the astonished Catherine, fly- 
ing in her turn. It was again to Prussia that France, 
always shackled by the same treaty, was obliged to 
resign the honour of arresting the torrent that was 
about to overwhelm Bavaria ; so extensive are the 
consequences of a presumptuous, or inconsiderate 
engagement. From the treaty of 1756, dates the 
disorganization of the political order of Europe, and 
perhaps a part of the revolution; for this great viola- 
tion of rules irritated men's minds to the degree which, 
as Burke remarks, caused from that time the word 
republic to be pronounced ; so great was the resent- 
ment excited by twenty years of declension and de- 
gradation of France and of her cabinet. To recover 
from this disgrace, and to prevent its recurrence, men 



93 

were heard to appeal to a name unknown, incompati- 
ble and impossible ; the excess on one side corres- 
ponded to the excess on the other. There are in po- 
litics fundamental acts, which, like the key of an arch, 
cannot be moved widiout shaking the solidity of the 
whole edifice. 

The distance at which the cession of Belgium has 
placed Austria, has caused France to lose this mean 
of repression against that power; there no longer 
exists any point of contact, any direct interest between 
them ; by a remarkable caprice of destiny, it has hap- 
pened that Napoleon was the means of terminating 
the rivalship between the houses of Austria and of 
France ; the care of watching Austria has now passed 
to Prussia and to Russia. 

Kven in Italy, France cannot come in contact with 
Austria; excepting the case of an attack against Pied- 
mont, which would force this state to invoke the suc- 
cour of France, the gates of the Alps will remain 
closed against her, and the separation between her 
and Austria will be maintained. Piedmont will not 
Ibe seen to open a passage through its territories for 
the armies of France to march to the attack of the 
Milanese, and expose itself thus to become the seat 
of war for both parties ; as it happened in the wars of 
Francis I. and of Henry II. 

France has no longer in Italy the interests which, for 
a long time, claimed her attention there ; and that in 
consequence of the metamorphosis which this coun- 
try has experienced. The republics of Genoa and 
of Venice have disappeared ; the republican order no 
longer even exists in this country, so long agitated by 
a great number of these goveri^raents^ even Lucca 

p 



94 

has become a principality ; Parma, lost to the house 
of Bourbon, will in future swell the domains of Aus- 
tria; Modena is destined for the dowry of an Austrian 
princess. Naples, though Bourbon by the males, is 
Austrian by intermarriage, and also Austrian by its 
territory, as it is English by its maritime position. 
France cannot reach it by sea: upon land. Piedmont 
and all Austrian Italy, are interposed between Naples 
and France; the latter, indeed, receives ambassadors 
from the family of Naples; but the representatives of 
whatever power it has are found at other courts. All 
dispute, all direct action is, therefore, impossible on 
the part of France with Austria. 

France has long been the protector of the Germanic 
body. This attribute she has lost; and, after what has 
past, it is allowable to conjecture, that, for a long 
time, this body will not again have recourse to France. 
On this frontier, Germany covers herself with for- 
tresses in such a manner as to hold herself entirely 
separated from France; and to retrace the times of 
the campaigns of Louis XIV., in which a whole year 
was consumed in taking one or two cities on the 
borders of the Rhine. 

The French influence in Switzerland is upon no 
better footing than in Germany. The mediation of 
Napoleon has been replaced by that of the coalesced 
powers; and, for a long time, France will not enjoy 
any real credit in Switzerland; a circumstance, how- 
ever, of much less importance than has generally been 
attached to this influence over the cantons. 

France has held the reins of power in Switzerland; 
she has suffered them to drop from her hands; no 
more is required to assure us that its gates will here- 



95 

after be closed against her with greater vigilance than 
against any other power. It is the necessary consequence 
of all political reverses; fear imparts to ingi'atitude the 
varnish of prudence. Holland owed to France the 
conclusion of her painful struggles with Spain, and 
the acknowledgement of her independence; it was the 
work of Henry IV. In this policy is recognised the 
genius of this prince, and the long views of his illus- 
trious ministers, the Sullys, the Jeannins, and the 
Villerois. 

The wars of pride waged by Louis XIV. against 
this peaceable republic, had deranged all the plans 
traced by the sagacity of Henry, and thrown Holland 
into the arms of England. 

King William detested Louis XIV. even more 
than France. The efforts of his genius were direct- 
ed against the haughty ambition of the French mo- 
narch, even more than against the French power. 
His death did not deaden the effects of his hatred; it 
passed undiminished, nay, rather exasperated, into 
the breasts of those high spirited grand pensionaries 
of Holland, who in Gertruydenburgh so cruelly 
humbled Louis XIV.; and who, remaining last upon 
the field of battle, were not to be diverted from 
marching to sign peace at Versailles, but by the de- 
fection of England. If the triumvirate of Eugene, 
of Marlborough, and of Heinsius, had not been dis- 
solved by men more politic than themselves, Louis 
XIV. had been utterly ruined, and would have 
shared, in 1712, the fate that has befallen Napoleon 
in 1814. 

From this epoch until 1756, Holland continued to 
side uniformly with the enemies of France. This 



96 

was the necessary effect of vicinity; at that time, by 
virtue of the barrier treaty, Holland guarded the fron- 
tiers of the Low Countries; and, as war never failed 
to take this direction, it was natural that Holland 
should always have been drawn into its vortex. The 
treaty of 1756 soothed and disarmed her. This is 
the only benefit it has produced, and the compensa- 
j:ion was not too great for all the evils it caused, in 
other ways. 

Holland was so constituted, that the Stadtliolder 
was English, while the chief members of the govern- 
ment, as well as the people, were French. The no- 
bles, sotne members of the states general, and of the 
municipal corporations, were attached to the stadt- 
holder. All the rest inclined towards democracy and 
towards France. This opposition between the nation 
and its rulers could not fail to produce the most fatal 
consequences. During the war of American inde- 
pendence, France, under the able direction of the 
count de Vergennes, had succeeded in detaching 
Holland from England, and had caused her to enter 
the maritime confederation, whose foundations were 
laid at that time. This was a triumph over the per- 
sonal inclinations of the stadtholder, who favoured 
England, and who, in the direction of the war, con- 
nived openly with her in the affair of sending the fleet 
to Brest. From that time commenced the divisions 
which threw this state into confusion. 

The embarrassments of the French government 
were such as to disable it from acting with vigour in 
the quarrel terminated in 1787, by the intervention 
of the Prussians. While France presented notes 
and talked of forming a camp at Givet, the duke of 



97 

Brunswick marched to Amsterdam, and restored the 
ascendancy of English politics in Holland. The 
French party was kept down till the epoch of the re- 
valution, which offered it the occasion of revenge ; 
when it leagued entirely with France until the time 
when Holland became a French province. Inevita- 
ble effect of factions, who in country see only the 
means of domination ; and who would rather see it 
destroyed, than governed by their adversaries. 

At present, all the elements of these ancient com- 
binations have disappeared, Holland and Belgium 
are no more: And upon their site a new state has 
risen, destined to repress France, and to live under 
tlie general guarantee of Europe. This change has 
given an entirely new face to the French policy, on 
this side. France can no longer look here for ag- 
grandizements ; she should think only of interdicting 
them to others at her expense. For the encroach- 
ments upon France of the kingdom of the Nether- 
lands, would not be opposed by England and by 
Prussia, as those of France upon that state assuredly 
would be. According to this new order of things, 
two different relations are established between the 
new states : neutrality on land : — alliance on the sea. 
France and the kingdom of the Netherlands stand 
related to each other, and with respect to England, in 
the same manner as Prussia and Austria, with regard 
to Russia: and for the same reason; the excessive 
power of each. 

Prussia was the ally of France. Geography, the 
mistress of policy, had formed this alliance. They 
were allied because they were separated : they have 
approached and the alliance is dissolved. When the 



98 

cabinet of Versailles formed the treaty of 1756, it 
offered violence to nature ; by giving to France, for 
allies, her neighbours in Belgium ; and for enemies, 
her ancient allies beyond the Rhine. The resistance 
of nature was visible in the disasters which followed ; 
and in the punishment of the fault which was thus 
committed. The laws of policy like those of nature, 
cannot be violated with impunity ; certain penalties 
are equally attached to their transgression. But, the 
congress of Vienna has in this point, renewed the 
fault of 1756, and reproduced the violation of the 
natural order of things : it has sanctioned one of the 
great aberrations of the policy of Mr. Pitt, which > 
against the same nature of things, tended to approach 
Prussia to France with the view of opposing them to 
each other : an anti-social calculation in the political 
order of Europe, tending to provoke the renewal of 
wars; and which, by dividing Prussia into many 
parts, has enfeebled her to a degree that, with respect 
to Russia, is next to nullity. By carrying one h£\lf 
of Prussia to the gates of France, it is found that 
this power is made to occupy the same place 
which was filled during a century by Austria ; the 
same which Spain had held during two hundred 
years. It is sufficient to look at what passed between 
these powers in all this interval of time, to be enabled 
to appreciate the nature of such approaches. The 
alliance, therefore, of Prussia with France is broken 
by the nature of things; they are neighbours, they 
cannot be allies. Prussia wholly exposed on the 
side next to France cannot but covet some shreds of 
her possessions, to cover her own nudity. Of this 
she has given a proof by the appropriation of Saar- 



99 

louis. She would infallibly countenance the further 
augmentation of the kingdom of the Netherlands at 
the expense of France ; because this state is less ca- 
pable than France of exciting her jealousy : And if 
then the two states should establish between them 
the judicious and equal system of proportional ag- 
grandizements ; a system which has cost Poland her 
existence: it will follow that the frontiers of France 
must recede on one side as much as on the other. 
Such are the fruits France has to reap from the poli- 
cy of sentiment and of consanguinity! There can 
occur but one case in which France would, as it were 
naturally, throw her weight into the scale of Prussia, 
that in which the barrier, should be too strongly as- 
sailed on her side ; every where else there is divorce 
between the two states. In the event of disputes 
between Austria and Prussia, all things forbid France 
to interfere. Prussia, with that part of the Germanic 
confederation which appertains to her, will be always 
sufficiently strong against Austria; for Prussia will 
always have allies in Germany ; but Austria never. 
France has no occasion to move on account of diifer- 
ences that must be dicided on the frontiers of Sile- 
sia and of Bohemia : And in case one of the con- 
tending parties should threaten to oppress, it will re- 
main for Russia to restore the equilibrium. 

The actual system of France with regard to Prus- 
sia, is therefore no less simple, although in an oppo- 
site sense, than was her ancient system. 

Then it was all alliance; now it is all alienation; 
which does not imply that the two states should feel 
hostile dispositions, one against the other, and as it 
were, cultivate enmities. Heaven forbi^ that such 



100 

an idea should ever present itself: but only that the 
nature of things, and the force of interests, do not es- 
tablish between them any motive of approximation; 
and on the contrary, that they have created many 
capable of dividing them. 

Thus Prussia in her possessions between the Meuse 
and Rhine, will be less inclined to favour the French 
commerce, than were a multitude of petty princes 
who had not established the imposts, which the more 
considerable expenses of Prussia will oblige her to 
exact; who were not exclusively intent upon en- 
couraging the productions of the German soil and 
industry, as Prussia will not fail to be. The calcula- 
tions and the administration of a great state, like 
Prussia, that has need to cherish all the branches of its 
revenues, cannot resemble those of princes who were 
too insignificant to have a rank assigned them in 
policy. 

The alliance of France and of Sweden is of ancient 
date. Its first object was to oppose a barrier against 
Austria. But how are times changed? The dan- 
gers and the enemy are elsewhere. No more in the 
plains of Germany will the successors of Gustavus 
meet the French armies in view of Austria; it is no 
longer on the land that they could act in concert, but 
their union should be formed upon the very shores of 
the Baltic. The creation of Russia, and her imposing 
entrance upon the scene of Europe, have changed all. 
France and Sweden, having nothing to envy each 
other; nothing to ask of each other, either in Europe 
or in the colonies ; both abounding in different pro- 
ductions; contain between them no cause of exclusion, 
and present a thousand of reciprocal amity. The 



101 

magnetic needle is not more surely attracted towards 
the pole than France towards the powers of the north, 
that are inferior to Russia. The same thing should 
be said of Denmark, but in the proportion of its forces; 
which are far from corresponding with those of Swe- 
den. The new maritime system, into Avhich France 
is forced to enter, inclines her to the alliance of Swe- 
den and of Denmark. These powers are inferior to 
England at sea ; consequently they appertain to the 
confederation, whose chief approaches nearest in 
power to the common enemy, and presents the great- 
est number of means to repress him; and who has 
better claims to fill this character than France; who 
being the strongest of the secondary naval powers, is 
their natural centre, and as it were, the capital of 
neutrals? 

All we have hitherto said relates to the continental 
division of the north. Let us now see what passes 
in that of the soutli, with reference to France. 

It contains Italy, Spain and Portugal. France has 
no longer any thing to do in Italy : the influence she 
has exercised there, is precisely what causes her to 
be banished from it, in these new circumstances. The 
hearts of the people are indeed still devoted to France; 
but the greater her popularity^ the gi'eater the aver- 
sion of the Italian governments towards her; the great- 
er the regrets and the recollections she has left, the 
less can she depend on the affections of those who 
govern. They would never address themselves to 
France, but in the case of extreme apprehensions 
against Austria ; a more imminent peril might impose 
silence on their other terrors : in this case even, it 
would be wise to examine how far interest would 



102 

command France to interfere : for whether Italy be a 
little more or a little less in the possession of Austria; 
whether this country number a few useless princes 
more or less; wherein would it interest France, or 
even Europe, to the well-being of whom they contri- 
bute nothing? For it is the nature of these petty 
states to be burdensome to all; supports to none. 
Besides, is it proved how far it would be for the in- 
terest of Austria to extend herself in Italy; and whe- 
ther too great a mass of Italians would be a force 
rather than a danger? 

There was a time when France was charged with 
the protection of the dutchies of Parma and of Pla- 
centia, as family possessions of the Bourbons. This 
little state participated in the effects, and in the affec- 
tions of the family compact which subsisted between. 
France and Spain; but was never able to ren- 
der France any service Avhatever. Naples was equally 
useless. This state is neither to be attacked nor de- 
fended by land ; it is by sea alone that dangers or 
succours can approach it. When a capital, which 
is almost the entire state, is situated within cannon 
shot of a hostile fleet, this state appertains to whoever 
can shew such a fleet in its waters. Sixty years of 
experience have taught that Naples must always final- 
ly abide the pleasure of England ; and that there ex- 
ists between the walls of this city, and the arsenal of 
Portsmouth, a compact of terror more effectual than 
all family compacts : the latter will never acquire any 
real validity till their ratification shall be confirmed in 
the arsenals of Brest and of Toulon ; for so long as 
these shall remain inferior to those of the Thames, 
so long the family compact will continue an empty 
name. 



103 

Spain is equally insulated; surely France cannot 
think of attacking her by land : what has lately hap- 
pened is the product of extraordinary circumstances : 
lout the system is re-established, such as it existed 
from the time of Philip V.; and tlie basis of this sys- 
tem is peace with France. In like manner Spain 
cannot be attacked by any continental power: France 
serves as her bulwark and her shield. Spain is a 
species of continental island ; policy has completed 
for her the work of nature. The example of Napoleon 
must have taught that if nothing is more easy than to 
enter Spain, nothing is more difficult than to subsist 
and remain there, and nothing more impossible than 
to get out of it. Napoleon took on himself to esta- 
blish that there existed in Europe two unassailable 
states — Spain and Russia : the one by its extent and 
climate, the other from the manners of its inhabitants. 
It would be as wise to march into Turkey as into 
Spain. 

The enmity of Spain against France extinguished, 
by the accession of the house of Bourbon to the 
throne of Spain, had cost them both dear; and what 
proves clearly that the hatred was not in things but 
in men is, that the change of the latter has sufficed to 
obliterate these animosities, after, and in spite of, 
three hundred years of hostilities. The friendship 
of Spain has been without utility to France; and the 
friendship of the latter has been pernicious to Spain; 
so defective are the elements of this union so much 
extolled. The reason of it is very simple ; it is, that 
the two states do not touch nor sustain each other 
but by their weak part; which is contrary to the na- 
ture of all good and solid alliance. The strong part 



104 

of France is the land and her army; the weak part 19 
the sea and her navy; but it is only upon the sea, and 
with their fleets, that Spain and France can unite and 
support each other; it is only against England they 
can act; and, in this case, their union represents the 
combination of two that are feeble against one that is 
strong, and stronger than both, either together, or se- 
parately; and who, consequently, can only combine 
to receive blows together. Sixty years of disasters 
are the unexceptionable witnesses of this assertion. 

In the war of 1740, the united armies of France 
and Spain took Naples and Parma from Austria, and 
caused them to pass to branches of the Bourbon fa- 
mily. The alliance was found to have energy, be- 
cause each of its members acted with its strong part, 
its army; but, in the war of 1756, the cabinet of Ver- 
sailles believed, very erroneously, it had re-establish- 
ed its fortunes by forming the family compact with 
Spain; whereas experience soon proved that it had 
only associated its unfortunate ally to its own disas- 
ters; for neither France nor Spain were able to em- 
ploy their real force; having nothing to oppose to the 
strong part of their enemy but that which was weak- 
est in themselves; a conflict was therefore established 
entirely to his advantage. It was evident, that France 
and Spain knew not wherein consisted their strength 
or their weakness; that they were ignorant of the 
genuine principle of alliances; accordingly it has al- 
ways happened that Spain has been unfortunate in 
her connexions with France; and that England would 
have been much disappointed not to find Spain in an 
union, into which she could only enter as her prey. 
Advantage was taken of the profound resentment 



105 

Charles III. had retained against the English for 
the menaces of bombardment, which admiral Mat- 
thews had caused him to fear when king of Naples, 
to draw this prince into an alliance that, evidently, 
could tend only to the prejudice of Spain. 

In the war of American independence, the cele- 
brated junction of the two fleets could neither effect a 
descent upon the coasts of England, nor prevent the 
relief of Gibraltar, nor wash out the affront of the 
twelfth of April. It was not the weight of this coali- 
tion, but the nature of things, which decided the in- 
dependence of America. Without it, there would 
have been one or two campaigns more; but the result, 
though less immediate, was not the less certain. 

Much has been said of the commercial advantages 
that have resulted to France from the Spanish alliance. 
But neither isi this opinion well founded. 

France has enjoyed no commercial advantage in 
Spanish America; she was excluded equally with all 
other nations; for this country was subject to the laws 
of the most rigid exclusion. Strangers were never 
permitted to traffic there openly; and the benefits of 
contraband were then, as at this day, exclusively en- 
joyed by England. 

By the treaty of the Assiento, Spain had ceded to 
England the exclusive privilege of supplying her co- 
lonies with slaves; a commerce of immense value; 
England also derived the principal benefit resulting 
from the deficiencies of the tariff of 1778, granted 
by Spain to her colonies. Thus, France only gleaned, 
where England was permitted to monopolize the har- 
vest; she gained some trivial profits, where England 
accumulated millions. If the southern provinces of 



106 

France maintained beneficial relations with Spain, 
they were less the effect of the alliance, or personal 
favour of Spain, than that of vicinity; and of the dif- 
ference of the industry, and of the activity of the two 
people. Nature and interest had formed these ties, 
and not the preferences granted by policy. 

It is natural to procure what is wanting at home 
in places that are nearest and the least expensive; so, 
also, it is natural that labour should furnish to sloth, 
more than it receives from it. These are the only 
sources of the respective advantages between France 
and Spain. Cadiz admitted the products of the Eng- 
lish manufactures, as freely as those of the French; 
Cadiz contained ten English houses, for one French; 
all was therefore equal on the two sides, and the state 
of civilization will prevent France from enjoying any 
privilege in future; for, hencefori\\, th^ '^-^ will be no 
longer any privileged people; privileges passing from 
men to things, will no longer be attached but to good 
merchandise and to low prices; and one of the great- 
est social errors will thus be reformed. 

The alliance of Spain, therefore, has been of no 
sort of use to France; it has not improved the situa- 
tion of this monarchy; but has on many occasions 
exposed it to be seriously compromised, as in 1770, 
for the quaiTel of the Malouine Islands; in 1790, for 
that of Nootka Sound. Twenty years of alliance in 
the course of the revolution have contributed no ser- 
vice to France; and, if it has been useless to her, in 
amends, it has ruined Spain, and finally cost her 
America. 

During all this time, the ports of Spain were block- 
aded; commerce interrupted; all her fleets defeated 



107 

or destroyed; insular positions, such as Trinidad, oc- 
cupied. Spain, who had been unable to defend her- 
self against France, succeeded no better against Eng- 
land; and was, in her turn, unable to defend France 
against her. Then followed the great catastrophe of 
Bayonne, which, perhaps, would never have taken 
place, but for this fatal alliance; which gave France 
the right to interfere in the aflfairs of Spain. 

The intimate alliance with Spain was, therefore, 
a very defective article in the French policy; but what 
has been only superfluous, or faulty, in this policy, in 
the new state of things becomes incompatible, and in- 
tolerable. 

According to the ancient system, France was in- 
terested to preserve America to Spain, and that in an 
exclusive manner; at present, the same interest re- 
quires that she should labour to effect their separation. 
At that time America was a Spanish colony; she has 
now to prevent it from becoming altogether a colony 
of England. 

Spain is too feeble to regain her colonies, as she 
would be to control, though she were to recover 
them. She exhausts herself in an unequal contest, 
and therefore disastrous; she will finally cause herself 
to be excluded from America; meanwhile, England 
is gaining an establishment in South America, (not 
with the succours of government, but with those of 
individuals,) and forming relations which no course 
of events can ever dissolve. Individuals in England 
are doing for Southern America what France, as a 
government, had done for the United States. When 
America shall be filled with English commercial esta- 
blishments; when, by studying its wants, and its dis- 



108 

positions, England shall have gained strong hold of 
the hearts, of the tastes, and of the affections of its 
inhabitants, who shall attempt to supplant her, to ex- 
pel her, to deprive her of this cream of the products 
of America; which she has the art to appropriate, as 
well as that of every other commerce in the universe? 

In this respect the French policy evidently pursues 
a false route; and follows the aberrations of the con- 
gress of Vienna, which led it to prefer useless Saxo- 
ny to dangerous Prussia. The French policy shews 
itself averse to the revolution of America; it would 
combat it in the name of legitimacy and family ties, 
if its means or the times would permit. France hav- 
ing nothing to demand of Spain, nothing to expect 
from her, nothing to fear from her, finds herself in the 
most favourable position to reclaim her ally to reason, 
on the subject of the great drama of America, which 
involves the future destiny of the world. None so 
happily situated as France to act with effect upon the 
councils of Spain, and cause the light to penetrate 
them which is wanting in that benighted country. 

France should endeavour to make Spain under- 
stand how much it is her interest to preserve her own 
forces; and not to exhaust those of America; as also 
not to make sterile its fields, nor to alienate the hearts 
of its inhabitants, and thus give them to England; 
v.^hom their reciprocal union should serve to repress, 
at a future day. She should open before the eyes of 
Spain, wounded in her pride, misconceiving her in- 
terests, considering only the past and the present; she 
should open the gates of the future; unveil it without 
softening as without fear, (for it is only thus she can 
be served,) and shew her, in a sacrifice become neces- 



•109 

featy, the elements of her own regeneration, as well 
as those of the maritime liberation of Europe ; which 
no longer can come but from America. 

Such are the high considerations by which France 
should seek to act upon Spain, throwing aside se- 
condary considerations which present no resource 
against the existing evil; such as the mortification 
attached to the relinquishment of a possession, like 
America ; legitimacy ; resentment against the revolu- 
tion ; apprehensions from encouragement' given anew 
to the spirit of independence. It is better to learn to 
say, that whatever can be felt as man shall prevent 
nothing, shall change nothing in the political order : 
that for these forty years England has digested the 
humiliation and the chagrin occasioned by her colonies 
in North America ; whose independence however re- 
luctandy, she was finally compelled to acknowledge ; 
and, in fine, that when destiny can neither be resisted 
nor changed, courage no longer consists in continu- 
ing to oppose it without reason ; but in submitting 
with a good grace to its decrees; as the man of in- 
trepid heart sees approach and receives unmoved, the 
blow that brings him death. 

Spain should see, that for her as well as for France, 
this is the only means to enter anew with some splen- 
dour the career of high policy ; from which the gene- 
ral state of the world excludes them both, upon the 
continent. Since the war of the Spanish succession, 
Portugal has become the enemy of France ; or at least 
estranged from her. It was sufficient that the throne 
of Spain should be filled by a branch of the Bourbons, 
to dissolve the alliance that had subsisted between 
France and Portugal. This alliance had been ce- 
ll 



110 

mented by the opposition of France to Spain when 
governed by princes of the Austrian family: from 
the time when France succeeded to their place, she 
necessarily succeeded to the enmities that were at- 
tached to it. This consequence flowed from the 
general laws of alliances; which reason prohibits 
when they are not full and entire, and when they do 
not exclude all the enemies of each party to the com- 
pact. It was evident that the house of Bourbon 
placed upon the two thrones of France and Spain, 
gave the house of Braganza to England. 

In the place of this house, any other had done the 
same; governed alone by the interests of country. 
Thus the succession of Spain, attributed to the house 
of Bourbon, had changed all the relations between 
France and Portugal. From allies, they had become 
enemies. 

Since this epoch, France, in concert with Spain, 
has twice attacked Portugal, without any personal 
interest; and England has been seen as often to fly 
to its succour. 

In 1756, by virtue of the family compact, a French 
corps was united to the Spanish army which menaced 
Portugal ; not from any displeasure against this state 
personally ; it was however considered as the ally of 
England ; and it was hoped by this invasion to force 
the latter to give up the colonies, which by means of 
her naval superiority she had taken, successively. 
This calculation was attended with no better success 
than all those that were made at that time ; for 1. The 
English and the Portuguese, under the command of 
a man of genius the Count de la Lippe, arrested the 
progress of the combined army of France and of 



Ill 

Spain. 2. In the course of the revolution, France 
and Spain have invaded Portugal ; have forced the 
sovereign of this country to seek an asylum in Ame- 
rica; and although the transitory possession of Portu- 
gal became the source of signal defeats for both, it 
nevertheless opened the way for two important 
changes, the one in America, the other in Europe ; 
the erection of the kingdom of Brazil; and the loss 
of its sovereign for Portugal. This state has thereby 
sustained a complete metamorphosis: it has fallen 
into an order of things not easily defined: from a 
mother-country it has become a colony ; the tributary 
of that, over which it was the sovereign ; guarded by 
a foreign army ; too strong to be subjected by its new 
metropolis ; too feeble to resist its foreign guardians ; 
regretting the past, dissatisfied with the present, and 
anxious for the future : if France had no interests to 
arrange, directly, with Portugal when vassal of Eng- 
land, she has still fewer relations with Portugal, a 
province of Brazil, and an English factory. 

France, as has already been shewn, has no direct 
interests to cultivate in Italy. The sovereign of 
Piedmont will be alvvays at his post to exercise, with 
respect to her, the functions of gaoler of the Alps ; 
he would even, if pushed to extremity, solicit Austria 
to aid him in defending them. He would do the 
same against Austria ; and would look towards France 
for the means of resisting the encroachments of that 
power. Thus he will always act defensively, whether 
against the one or against the other. France had mul- 
tiplied intermarriages with the family which reigns in 
Piedmont. These alliances did not accomplish the 
political object which had been purposed in form- 



112 

i|ig them, nor prevail against the able and well di- 
gested phans which regulated the policy of this little 
state ; such as alone can ensure the safety of all feeble 
states wedged in among the territories of states much 
stronger than themselves. Piedmont had been go- 
verned with much wisdom and indulgence by a long 
series of frugal and able princes. In the war of the 
Spanish succession the duke of Savoy did not hesi- 
tate to take part against the two states, in which his 
two daughters reigned. He was indebted to this 
measure, dictated by transcendant policy, for the 
augmentation of his title and that of his domains. 
At present since all upper Italy has become Aus- 
trian, Piedmont is the natural ally of France ; because 
the Alps interpose between the two states a great 
barrier, which is wanting on the side of the Austrian 
possessions. The power of taking an inch of ground 
from Piedmont, would not be conceded France. All 
would combine to prevent her. But that which 
would be prohibited to herself, she ought, on her 
part, to prohibit others ; and to oppose the smallest 
encroachment on Piedmont. 

This state, like the kingdom of the Netherlands 
has, therefore, in the general order guarantees of 
stability. 

France has no interests to discuss with Tuscany, 
Parma, the state of the Pope ; no more than with the 
kingdom of Naples. The two former are but ap- 
pendages of Austria ; Naples has French affections, 
and English fears. 

France at present, could only communicate with 
Naples by sea : a costly route, often interdicted, little 
favourable to the transportation of a numerous corpsj 



113 

and in which, besides, England would be encoun- 
tered. The occupation of Malta, and of the Ionian 
islands, secure to this power a preponderance over 
Naples; she controls the Mediterranean from three 
grand points, of which she has providently acquired 
the possession; Gibraltar, Malta, Corfu. She has 
possessed Minorca; if it revert to her again, such an 
augmentation of insular points of support, dependant 
entirely on the marine both for attack and defence, 
combined with the increase of the English navy, 
would make of the Mediterranean an English road. 

On inquiring what interests can unite France to 
Naples, none are discovered. The country presents 
her only melancholy historical recollections, and e:^- 
amples of domination effaced almost as soon as es- 
tablished. Naples is a stuff on which the French 
stamp will not remain. 

The French influence has always been great at 
Rome ; which place became the seat of three factions ; 
those of France, Spain and Austria, who especially 
employed their address to obtain for themselves the 
nomination of a Pope favourable to their views. In 
this conduct there was more of routine than of calcu- 
lation ; for it is long since Rome has possessed any 
importance or significance. On considering the ob- 
ject of Rome in the political order, the reason is not 
perceived of the value that has been attached to her 
connexion. It has only contributed to give Rome, 
(flattered by this homage of habit, but mistaking its 
nature,) an exaggerated idea of her importance, and 
to render her difficult ; a respectful indifference in the 
political order was the only reasonable conduct in her 
regard. She was entitled to nothing better. Since 



114 

the time of the Julius IPs., of the Leo X's. and of 
the Sixtus Quintus's was past, wherefore continue to 
cower as if it still existed? Time has sunk the tiara 
to the level of altars, and below the thrones of the 
world. 

Since Austria occupies all upper Italy, the nature 
3 would give Rome to France, alone capable 
iding her against this powerful neighbour, 
be banks of the Po, one Austrian, the other 
he alliance with France has been signed: but 
:ts of the sentiment which inclines Rome to- 
Vance will be repressed by the remembrance 
has passed in late times ; and the terrors in- 
)y the immediate vicinity of a power of such 
as that of Austria. 

is union all the advantage would be on the 
I the Pope; for how does it concern France 
r the domains of the church be more or less 
. /e. The general system of Italy having been 
2d, a few spots more or less are of no im- 
e to the general effect of the picture. The 
s chief of the catholic ceremonial, is of great 
to France, which proceeds from the connex- 
ihe spiritual with the temporal; but, as a se- 
ance, he is absolutely null in respect to her. 
cey was the most ancient and the most faith- 
of France. This was naturally to have been 
id, when the latter combated Austria, the 
of the crescent; while the two states were in 
both in Belgium and upon other points; but, 
reat distances separate them, the necessity of 
, mexion is no longer felt. It was possible to 
be tile ally of the Ttjrks, when their civilization had 



115 

not remained inferior to that of Europe in degrees that 
separate Turkey from Europe almost as far as China 
is distant from this country; at that time the Turkish 
state had force, and a real, though irregular vigour. 
But since, from the effects of a stationary order, and 
of the repulsion of every species of change, Turkey 
has remained, in the midst of the general movement 
of Europe, in the state which under the Selims and 
the Amuraths rendered her formidable, this power 
has lost all its energy and all its importance. Tur- 
key of the present day is to Europe, what Spain is 
found to be; Charles V. would be lost in it, and in- 
quire for his monarchy; as would Selim in his em- 
pire. At the utmost, should there be necessity for a 
general league against Russia, Turkey might be al- 
lowed to enter it as number; such is the inevitable 
effect of all delay in civilization, it gives immense 
disadvantages in regard to those who have been able 
to guard against it. 

During many ages, France attached great import- 
ance to the commerce of the Levant, in which she 
took the lead; and her allies, the Turks, caused her 
to enjoy peculiar advantages. 

This epoch preceded that of the creation of the 
great naval and manufacturing power of England ,- 
but, since both have arrived at a height which com- 
mands the world, things have necessarily changed. 
England has established herself in a manner that 
gives her the control of the Mediterranean. She 
guards its entrance by Gibraltar, the centre by Malta; 
Corfu gives her the Adriatic and all the western coast 
of European Tui'key. The Turks, even more than 
other men, are guided by fear, rather than by love: 



116 

and Ensrlancl alone is to be feared in the Mediterra- 
nean; she, who is so far from it, alone has had the 
art to establish herself there, by her insular posses- 
sions, far above the powers who possess its shores. 
Thus France and Spain, with a great part of their 
coasts facing the Mediterranean, do not exercise there 
a tenth part of the influence which appertains to Eng- 
land in the very places from which nature has placed 
her so remote; but, the art of policy has compensat- 
ed the work of nature, and filled up distances. The 
expedition of Egypt had alienated the Divan from 
France. The enemies of the latter, represented this 
enterprize as an aggression committed in the midst 
of peace; and England as a support. 

The liberty given by Napoleon to Russia in 1807, 
to attack Moldavia, finally determined Turkey in a 
direction entirely English. England interfered to 
obtain peace for her in 1812; since which time the 
English flag has not ceased to givejaw in all the seas 
of the Ottoman Empire. 

This was quite sufficient to annul the French 
power in the eyes of the Turks; and in the actual 
state of Europe, it is very evident that France has no 
influence at Constantinople; which is under the triple 
yoke of Russia, of Austria, and of England. 

But there is another political sphere in which 
France is invited to play a great part; excluded, ex- 
cept in extreme cases, from the continental policy 
here, she is found in the foremost rank — what do I 
say? — in the very centre of the European policy, of 
which she forms the pivot. It will be understood 
that I allude to the rank which the nature of things 
assigns to France in the maritime order of Europe. 



117 

She forms its basis, and, as it were, the bond that 
connects all the maritime states. They are seen dis- 
posed by this nature of things, to gi'oupe themselves 
around France, as around a common centre. From 
the farthest extremity of the Baltic to that of the 
Adriatic, there is not a single vessel which is not in 
permanent alliance with every French vessel; and, 
though strange, yet true, the combats between the 
continental armies of different powers, will not break 
the alliance between their marine; because whatever 
might pass upon land, the common enemy would 
nevertheless be found upon the sea. 

The superiority of the English marine has created 
this indissoluble union, and the contrast of these two 
positions. 

I have represented continental Europe marshalled 
in general opposition to Russia; here, in the same 
manner, is perceived the combination of all the ma- 
ritime states against the prepotence of England. 
These are the two giants, which menace, which 
chain, and have the power to crush, all. 

It is requisite, therefore, to act towards the one, as 
towards the other; for there is imminent danger from 
both. It is, however, much the greatest on the part 
of England; for, after all, Russia may be reached; a 
conquest may be recovered from her; she can take 
no colony from any; all her power over commerce is 
but negative, and singly consists in imposts or in pro- 
hibitions. But where to seize England, or how touch 
the conquests she has once placed under the safeguard 
of her formidable trident? Does she not dispose of the 
whole colonial order? has she not the power to inter- 
rupt commercial relations, and force them to take the 

s 



ll>8 

direction of her ports and of her factories? England, 
it is true, can do nothing against the great continental 
masses; but her power is unhmited against that which 
animates and invigorates them. 

Immense and formidable privilege, that of this ma- 
rine; which confers on him who enjoys it the force 
to lock in his arms the world entire, though he inhabit 
an island; from thence he soars over the universe; as 
an eagle, from the height of his inaccessible aiirie, 
stretches his menacing flight through fields of air, and 
pounces on his prey! But, against this maritime thral- 
dom of Europe and of the world, France is destined 
to stand the foremost in resistance; to her is distinctly 
attached the first link of the union which is to liberate 
the seas. The pretext assigned to allure France 
into the treaty of 1756, was the facility it would 
present her of directing all her resources to the im- 
provement of her navy. The increase of the maritime 
power of England enforces the expediency of return- 
ing to this system; and urges her to concentrate in it. 
The order of the continent, which condemns her to 
inaction, forces her into this capital opposition against 
England. 

From her position in the centre of maritime Eu- 
rope, France is at hand to co-operate with all the 
fleets of the continent. From Cadiz to Archangel, 
all, by the force of things, makes part of this confede- 
ration: all, like France, have no longer but one mari- 
time interest — ^Deliverance from the chains of Eng- 
land. 

But this grand confederation, whatever its force, 
would still be impotent, if besides, it were not sup- 
ported by America: so strong is England from her 



119 

position, the number of her ships, her nautical dex- 
terity, the multitude and the strength of the insular 
points she occupies, as also by the stations she has had 
the art to provide for herself every where. But in 
America is found the lever, which, acting with the 
fleets of Europe, is to burst all chains, and enfranchise 
every sea. 

America is attracted towards the sea by all the 
circumstances which have invited England herself 
to maritime pursuits. The extent of its sea coast is 
immense; its seamen, with English blood in their 
veins, unite all the qualities which render so formida- 
ble the navigators who constitute the force of Eng- 
land. 

England and North America form one sarhe family, 
inhabiting two different worlds; whose conflicting 
interests place two worlds in opposition, provided 
with equal means. England has to observe a wary 
policy with regard to America; for she depends more 
on that country than it depends on her; the English 
commerce has more need of the commerce of Ame- 
rica, than America has need of the commerce of 
England; for she has the commerce of the whole 
world to supply its place; but where would England 
find another America? This article is predominant 
in the counsels of England. By her great colony of 
Canada, by Acadia, by Newfoundland, England 
touches America, and depends on her. In time she 
will become unable to escape the influences which 
will necessarily result from the increase of the Ame- 
rican population and commerce. When in fifty years, 
in a hundred years, the United States shall have ac- 
quired a population of forty, of fifty, of a hundred 



126 

millions of inhabitants, how will England defend her 
adjacent possessions? 

The alliance of France, therefore, with America, is 
in her interests pre-eminently; but further, what she 
cannot fail to do with North America, she ought to 
extend also to Spanish America, and to Brazil, and 
always for the same reason and in the same sense ; the 
general liberation of the seas. The force of England 
consists in only having to act upon points in her vi- 
cinity, such as Cadiz, Brest, and the ports of France 
or of Spain. In this case, it is almost from her own 
ports that she blockades those of others. But when 
she shall find herself constrained to scatter her squa- 
drons over all the seas ; to watch at the same time the 
shores of Europe, and of America ; this power so for- 
midable by the proximity and concentration of its 
forces, will become feeble and easily broken, like a 
bundle of rods unbound. The policy of Europe is 
therefore to strengthen America as her natural auxili- 
ary. Consequently France, as the head of the Euro- 
pean maritime confederation, mistakes her true inter- 
est as often as she retards the progress of independence 
at any point whatever in America; since from this 
point is to issue a deliverer for her and for Europe. 
This is what renders so deplorable, and so painful to 
observe, the actual direction of the French policy in 
regard to South America; it was not thus that Henry 
IV. acted with regard to Holland ; nor Richelieu to- 
wards the protestant league of Germany. In his time, 
there wanted not men who took offence at the alliance 
of the most christian king, advised by a Cardinal, 
with the objects of Catholic abhorrence, and of 
Roman anathemas; but sound policy triumphed 



121 

over secondary considerations ; it o"ght to act with 
the same force in the new circumstances in which 
France finds herself placed; whereas by departing 
from it, she gives a preference to the misconceived 
interest of Spain over her own ; to consanguinity, over 
the liberty of Europe : to legitimacy, over the libera- 
tion of the world; for such is the result of the system 
which France pursues with a double detriment. In 
effect, with the power to render America free, she 
tends to retard her emancipation ; with the facility to 
render her French, she leaves her to become English, 
by all the means that England finds to establish her- 
self there ; by the succours and the merchandise she 
carries thither; a double motive for attachment to 
her interests. For such is the two-fold error of the 
French policy in this important subject: it gives to 
England both the time and the means to establish 
herself at once in the counsels and in the markets of 
America ; in the hearts and in the tastes of the Ame- 
ricans; consequently it gives to America the time to 
become English; whereas, on the contrary, she ought 
to be rendered European. Meanwhile, it is very 
evident that, in America as in Europe, whatever com- 
municates with the sea, which is almost all America, 
from the multitude and magnitude of its rivers; must 
seek support against the dominant power upon sea; 
in America, as in Euurope, it cannot fail to be recog- 
nised, that France is the centre of these partial sup- 
ports ; that the feeble and neuti'als, must come towards 
France as their head quarters ; that the prince who in 
Europe is the ally of England, by passing to Ameri- 
ca, becomes her opponent; that, though defended bj^ 
her in one hemisphere, he maj' be restricted and at- 
tacked by her in another. 



122 

The European transplanted in America is no long- 
er the same man who inhabited Europe ; on quitting 
it, he has left upon its shores the thoughts and the 
affections of Europe ; he acquires on landing in Ame- 
rica the eyes and the heart of an American. It may 
be conjectured that the king of Portugal, at Lisbon 
the retainer and vassal of England, in Brazil, will be- 
come her enemy. It cannot be learnt too soon, that 
the European policy has been immensely enlarged 
by the introduction of America upon the scene of the 
world. She comes to place in the midst of the ancient 
actors, and of the ancient interests, new actors and 
interests, of another nature and of another importance ; 
whose properties should be well studied, to prevent 
mistakes in the estimation which is to be made of 
them. No where more than in France is it of impor- 
tance to know them well; for her futurity is there. 
The part of this futurity which depends on the Eu- 
ropean continent is narrow and fixed : but that which 
relates to America is to be created : it is immense : 
its elements should be prepared with care, disposed 
with skill, and cherished with discernment. 

Whatever shall alienate France from America: 
whatever shall cause the smallest part of it to pass 
into the hands of England, will enfeeble, therefore, in 
an equal degree, France and maritime Europe. By 
her affection for Spain, or rather by her complaisance, 
it Mall be for England that France will finally have 
laboured, without other intention than to benefit 
Spain ; for she will not prevent the latter from losing 
America, and she will cause England to have 
time to establish herself there. Spain will not have 
America, less; and England will have its profits, 



123 

more; such \vill be the neat product of all this policy. 
Each day that France delays to cause Spain to take 
a decisive resolution upon this great question of 
America, turns to the advantage of England; and gives 
her time to supplant all other Europeans in the com- 
merce of that country. 

The Americans will not, more than other men, 
misunderstand the sentiments that shall have been 
discovered towards them ; and those who shall have 
contributed to prolong their combats, and their suffer- 
ings, must not expect to be placed, in the hearts of 
the inhabitants of America, on a level with those who 
shall have laboured to accelerate the enjoyment of a 
good so much desired, and so dearly purchased. 
Such are the dangers attached to the habit of per- 
mitting counsels to be influenced by the affections of 
person or of family; by remembrances, or fears, rela- 
tive to things which may have been the source of 
personal suffering. In the affairs of nations there are 
no men : but only things. States are always, between 
each other, in a state of nature. The substantial in- 
terests of the families who govern them, can only be 
found in the most scrupulous cultivation of the in- 
terests of the country itself: whatever is at variance 
with them; whatever wounds them, is thereby at 
variance with the interest of the prince, and wounds 
both it and him. The force of princes can be no 
other than that of their country ; in the long run, they 
are sustained only by the nation ; in process of time, 
strangers cannot but become, either useless or fatal 
to its interests. 

The royal houses of France and of Spain relied 
with confidence upon their family compact, which 



124 

united, in the same fasces, the triple sceptre they ex- 
tended over these countries, and over America. But 
I would leam from what this parade of power and of 
union has defended them? Wherein has it served 
them? In 1763 Spain was overpowered, at the side 
of France. In the course of the revolution these two 
thrones crumbled in ruin; that of Naples followed 
them; and, singular as it appears, the only throne 
that remained to these four royal branches, was the 
gift of the French republic; that of Etruria. All 
this policy of kindred is, therefore, habitually useless, 
and in many circumstances pernicious ; it will become 
such to France, irremediably, if persevered in. It is 
certain to direct her from the line upon which her 
clearest interests invite her to move. Place, for an 
instant, the English politicians at Paris; and you shall 
see if they would mistake it. " Give me the king 
only for twenty-four hours,'' said the Cardinal de 
Retz, " and you shall see what I would make of him." 
In like manner England would say, give me Spain 
to direct, and you shall see upon what line I would 
place her: whether I would cause her to combat 
America, for no other object, but to exhaust herself, 
and abandon the former to a rival; or whether I 
would not rather guide her in ways, by which Ame- 
rica should find the end of her sufferings, and myself 
the key of her heart, which would give me that of her 
treasures; by the sentiment of the service I should 
have rendered her. It is in this latitude of ideas ; in 
this detachment from all personal affections, which 
tend to restrict and to bias them ; that France will 
find the only basis of conduct which she can pursue 
with utility for Europe as for herself. ' 



125 

France no longer has colonies ; for this name will 
not be given to the factories which remain to her, 
whether in the East or the West Indies. In losing 
St. Domingo, she has lost whatever in her posses- 
sions abroad merited the name of colony. This loss 
has changed the direction of her military marine. 
Her petty factories would not indemnify her for the 
expense of a great naval establishment : She should 
be aware that her colonies appertain to her only dur- 
ing the good pleasure of England : let England un- 
furl her sails, and they are hers no longer. It is one 
bond less of dependance upon England; but this 
enfranchisement costs dear, for St. Domingo was 
to her what Peru has been for Spain. At least 
France has had the good sense never to think of re- 
conquering it. 

France has no longer any means of access to St. 
Domingo, but that of commerce and the remem- 
brance of friendship, in compensation for the sove- 
reignty she can no more exercise. The revolution of 
St. Domingo is immense in itself, and as it respects 
France; for, by disinheriting her of her richest pos- 
session, it has created for her the need of an indemni- 
fication; which she can find only in the enfranchise- 
ment of America. This treasure of St. Domingo 
requires a whole world, and the most opulent part of 
the universe, as its compensation. 

Fenelon gave the duke of Burgundy for a precept, 
to avoid all contest with England. In this counsel, 
the painter of the son of Ulysses, seemed to partici- 
pate in the renowned wisdom of the father. 

In effect, for the last six hundred years, England 
has chased France, step by step, in Europe, in Ame- 

T 



126 

rlcu, in Asia; in India as in Canada. England has 
stripped her of all; has taken all. She has never 
quitted the pursuit of her rival, but at the time of her 
revolution; which, like all civil convulsions, absorbed 
her entire attention, and fixed it upon her interior. All 
tlie deep wounds of France have come from England; 
Cressy, Azincourt, Poitiers, La Hogue, Hochstet, 
Ramillies, Aboukir, Trafalgar, Waterloo; all these 
cruel names were imprinted by English hands upon 
the ruins of French greatness; and will remain en- 
graven there in characters of blood. 

It has always been England who has animated Eu- 
rope against France; who has designated this country 
as the object of her umbrage, of her blows, and of 
her vengeance. 

Without ascending to remote times, and looking 
back no farther than those of king William, England 
has never ceased to alienate Europe from France, or 
to excite new wars against her. 

Whoever had a mind to quarrel with France, had 
only to present himself; her treasures were at his dis- 
posal; England was the bond of the quadruple alliance 
against Lew- is XIV. ; she formed the coalition in the 
war of the Spanish succession; slie allied with Maria 
Theresa against France; with Prussia, also against 
France; in the whole course of the revolution, has 
she done other thing than provoke and support the at- 
tacks of Europe, and pay all coalitions; when all others 
had submitted, she haughtily remained upon the field 
of batde; and her voice, mingling seduction with 
terror, invited to an eternal war; of which she gave 
the signal and the example. 

Portugal, Italy, Spain, Egypt, have seen her dis- 



127 

play the same ardour, the same activity, and the same 
profusion of the means of combat against France. 
From her hand has issued the new kingdom of the 
Netherlands, of which she is, at the same time, the 
mother, and the buckler; and of which she has made 
a bridle for France. 

An idea' cannot be formed of an opposition more 
persevering or more methodical. 

Preserving for herself the liberty of moving that 
she takes from others; marching through the universe, 
while she holds it captive; it seems that liberty is her 
exclusive inheritance, and that she has reserved it as 
a privilege, to the participation of which she reluc- 
tantly admits others. 

The dangers of quarrels with England are, there- 
fore, sufficiently sensible; the point is not to indulge 
iiTitation against her; but to ascertain the due line of 
conduct towards her; and, with this view, learn to 
know her well. Upon the continent the two adver- 
saries can neither reach nor seize each other. In the 
colonies, the match is of an inequality which pro- 
scribes even the idea of a struggle. In every war 
with England, France will commence by losing what- 
ever she has left of colonies; and, as she has nothing 
to give her in compensation, she must seek their ran- 
som elsewhere. In all war with England, France 
sees her ports blockaded, and interdicted the com- 
merce of the world: her revenues exhausted and im- 
poverishment establish itself within her borders. The 
chain of posts that England has stretched around the 
world, embraces France also; ajid she finds herself 
caught with all others under the same net; strange 
state of things ! a chain more strong, and of greater 



128 

length, than any of those it was ever permitted a peo- 
ple to extend over the world ! a power which effaces 
that possessed by Tyre and Carthage; and which re- 
presents universal slavery issuing from one of the 
smallest countries of Europe, and scarcely compos- 
ing a part of it. 

These griefs of Europe will increase until the de- 
sirable epoch, in which America shall be able to ac- 
complish the glorious destiny to which she is called; 
that of uniting with Europe to enfranchise the seas. 
Columbus, in discovering it, and Penn, when he peo- 
pled it, little thought of the products of the germes 
which, from two opposite points of Europe, they 
came to transplant in this new earth; and still less, 
that it had been reserved for the descendants of Eng- 
land, to break the yoke which the mother country has 
imposed on the universe. France cannot, single, con- 
tend with England; no more than Prussia against 
Russia. In both cases, alliances are necessary to 
compensate personal inferiority. Consequently, France 
can only act with the support of the maritime confe- 
deration of Europe, which restricts her to the most 
rigorous circumspection in the choice of her contests 
with England; to present none which may cause her 
to lose the support of her allies. It would be requi- 
site to silence the counsels of self love, and the soli- 
citations of family; and to abandon, in the outset, 
what could not be effectually defended; as the colo- 
nies. France might then restrict herself to two other 
objects; 1. To observe the most rigid defensive upon 
her own coasts ; 2. To cover the sea with swarms of 
cruisers; and present them the English commerce as 
their prey; as the vulnerable side of England^ as the 



129 

point which would offer some compensation for the 
superiority of her squadrons. 

Thus, in the war of the Spanish succession, the 
French privateers supplied the deficiency of ships of 
the line, and caused England to sustain the enormous 
loss of three thousand merchant ships. France, re- 
duced to her own resources, would have nothing bet- 
ter in her power; but France, combined with the 
north of Europe and America, would act a part of 
quite another importance, and might recover the supe- 
riority she has lost upon the continent; which leads 
me to say next what, in future, is the system of 
France in this part. 



ISO 



(CHAPTER III. 

PART n. 

New System of France upon the Continent. 

According to the principles previously ad- 
vanced, the continental policy has its principal seat 
in Germany and in the North. Its principal object 
should be, opposition to new augmentations on the 
part of Russia. 

Germany contains two principal powers, who ba- 
lance each other, by means of many circumstances, 
Prussia and Austria. 

The Germanic body is sustained by itself, and 
should remain independent both of France and of 
Russia. France, placed at a distance from Austria, 
can have no occasions of direct disputes with that 
power; there no longer exists any contentious matter, 
between the two states. Prussia has approached 
France; but, in this approach, nothing is placed with- 
in the reach of France. All Europe would interdict 
France from touching the kingdom of the Nether- 
lands; the latter, whether single, or leagued with 
Russia, presents no danger for France. The bolts to 
avenge the temerity of an attack from this quarter are 
forged in the arsenals of Lille, of Douay, and of 
twenty fortresses which, on this side, cover the French 
frontiers. 



131 

France has nothing to demand of Italy, neither has 
she anght to fear from it. 

In this position, a system of neutrality and of mo- 
deration towards all, is the only policy that becomes 
her. She is alike too strong and too weak to interfere 
without damage in the affairs of the continent; it is 
very evident that she would have to support the 
charges of it, without reaping any of its profits; for, 
at the conclusion of every action, she would be re- 
duced to the situation in which she was found at its 
commencement. Europe has declared her will that 
France should be great, strong, and happy. She is 
a principal member of the political body of Europe. 
These, her acknowledged attributes, will not be con- 
tested her; but she will only be permitted to make a 
defensive use of them; for herself, and for Europe, in 
case of danger on the part of the two colossal powers 
that envelop it. 

France will always be considered as the reserve of 
Europe against the one, and as her file -leader against 
the other. In the case of any movement, which 
should have only a personal aim, France would find 
all the farces of Europe marshalled against her. The 
system of Europe, in regard to France, is established. 
Lewis XIV. and Napoleon have been the authors of 
it. By causing her to be feared to excess, they have 
finally caused her exclusion. They have imposed 
the necessity of raising around France walls of sepa- 
ration; of pressing upon her; and of fixing plans wtth 
regard to her. The latter may be considered as de- 
creed ; and of all the parts of the policy and of the 
ideas of Europe, this assuredly is that upon which 
there prevails the most uniformity in her opinions, 



132 

and in her wishes. Thus will have perished, no 
more to revive, the great French influences exercised 
by Lewis XIV. and by Napoleon. The second ex- 
perience which far exceeded the first, has excited 
still greater umbrage, and inspired more jealousies : 
it has created, and will cause to be maintained, pre- 
cautions still more severe than the first would have 
done. 

Twenty-five years after Lewis XIV. France had 
already excited Germany to attack Austria; had shared 
out her inheritance, and disposed of the imperial 
crown ; but Germany will now continue closed against 
her; and will reject all French influence. It is evi- 
dently with defensive and prohibitive views that she 
forms her army of confederation, and is constructing 
fortresses. France is therefore excluded from any 
direct and active participation in the great continental 
policy : she would be admitted to act as a subsidiary 
only, and not for her own account : and at the conclu- 
sion, assuredly, all would again imite to confine her 
at home. 

From this there results an afllicting change in the 
affairs of France, and in the rank she has occupied in 
Europe; it must be acknowledged with grief; but 
this depreciation is the necessary result of the actual 
state of Europe : security is guaranteed to France as 
the price of her insulation : she would provoke exac- 
tions the moment she should discover a symptom of 
personal ambition, or desire to recover a direct influ- 
ence. She mav rest assured that fear and the re- 
membrance of the past will cause her to be watched 
narrowly, and for a long time. 

In this state three things demand the attention of 
France. 



133 

1. To preserve her independence by avoiding all 
alliance. 

2. To strengthen her military cjrcumvallationj and 
create a defensive to sustain her interior. 

3. To form a school of diplomacy. 

There can be no doubt that the alliance of France 
will be courted : each state endeavours to form itself 
a system; and consequendy seeks supports. Diplo- 
macy thus returns to its ancient routine; which always 
led to this species of connexion : it was one of its prin- 
cipal studies. Already we begin to hear of the Rus- 
sian or Austrian alliance ; of a system with this one, 
or with that one ; in all which nothing is perceived 
that is not contrary to the real nature of things, which 
ought always to be consulted. France has now but 
one alliance to form ; that with this nature of things, 
which will suffice for all, and will never fail to do what- 
ever should be done. Too often things are marred 
and perish, because men desire to put themselves in 
their place. To ally with a power is to become bound 
to its interests, and to its inconveniences ; of the latter, 
one is always sure to have a good share ; as for its 
advantages, this is another affair ; herein the partici- 
pation is restricted, and regulated by the most rigid 
personal interest. The liquidation of the accounts of 
alliances, generally, presents nothing but miscalcula- 
tions of this sort. 

There is but one mode of securing our full value, 
which is to preserve our entire independence; now, to 
make alliance is to alienate it. When a power is great 
and strong, as France really is, we have no need of 
others ; while others frequently have need of us. We 
should therefore remain free; that is, single and our- 

u 



1 



134 

selves. If there be occasion to interpose, it should 
be done, not by virtue of pre-existing treaties, but 
from a visible and evident necessity. If the nature 
of things requires that a state should be succoured, 
the nature of things will bring this succour; without 
its resulting from anterior stipulations, but simply 
from the force of things. Then it would be the ge- 
iteral order which would regulate the auxiliary move- 
ments of France with respect to others; as, in return, 
it would lend her its support. 

The European association, in this case, would 
have to regard its own safety, and the maintenance of 
its equilibrium ; its succours would be regulated ac- 
cording to the degree of interest it might attach to 
this maintenance; it would not act therefore for 
France, but for itself; as France, on her part, would 
propose to herself the same object in lending it her 
support. 

Thus, on the supposition that Austria should seek 
the French alliance, as a reinforcement under the 
burden which Russia is destined to impose on her; 
there would not be the least occasion to negotiate, in 
order to be assured of the succours of France ; the 
treaty is found ready made, and as it were written in 
the nature of things; which will cause France to be 
always prepared to resist the breach of the northern 
barrier. France would do the same for Prussia, as 
for Austria, in her quality of barrier against Russia; for 
of what importance is it to the final result, whether 
the dike be broken in one point or in another? Rus- 
sia would be seen to conduct in the same manner 
with regard to France, if she were oppressed by a 
coalition of her enemies. All these ideas are simple^. 



135 

and flow from an order of things so visible as to ren- 
der mistake impossible. All the pomp and parade 
of diplomatists is therefore reduced to a mere trifle : 
since they can do no more than simply to announce 
ideas derived from the very nature of things. 

It is with diplomacy, at the present day, as with 
medicine. Professors in the latter, have closed their 
learned dispensatories, and apply themselves to ob- 
serve nature, to assist her, and follow her steps; 
diplomacy should adopt a similar procedure; and, 
shutting her folios, with her gloomy laboratories, 
dashing in pieces her old crucibles, the monuments 
of toils equally irksome as, in our age, superfluous ; 
she should concentrate in the single study of the na- 
ture of things. Thus she would find as it were on 
the surface of the earth, what she had been toiling 
to draw from its entrails. Such should be the 
future policy of France. . The nature of things has 
simplified her system ; it consists in continuing free j 
independent; in defending herself from all detriment 
that may threaten from abroad ; and in resisting the 
derangement of the order generally established. 

Lewis XIV. covered France with ramparts in all 
the part nearest the ordinary seat of war; the frontier 
of the north and of the Rhine. 

This system defended France on the side most ex- 
posed to the dangers of the time; executed by Vau- 
ban, it, answered the exigencies of that epoch. At 
the same time it left France open in all the part which 
borders the ecclesiastical electorates; the country of 
Liege and Switzerland. In ^814 and 1815, we have 
seen strangers penetrate with the greatest facility, by 
these two apertures. In 1793, after the surrender of 



136 

Valenciennes, the Austrian army marched through 
Cambray, and was only diverted from the route of 
Paris by the expedition of Dunkirk. In 1792, the 
duke of Brunswick a;dvanced by the upper Meuse, 
without obstacles worthy of mention, to within forty- 
live leagues of Paris. This was the weak side of 
France. The system of Lewis XIV. sufficed when 
France had great influence in Germany ; vs/^hen Bel- 
gium appertained to Austria; w^ien a great number 
of petty princes occupied the space between the 
Meuse and Rhine ; but since Prussia has taken their 
place, and is found at the gates of Metz ; since a com- 
pact state, such as the kingdom of the Netherlands, 
has replaced a feeble division of the Austrian monar- 
chy, and the country of Liege; the inadequate defence 
of this part presents serious inconveniences, at this 
day, which were not then perceptible; and renders it 
indispensable to add to the fortifications which alrea- 
dy exist. 

The capital of France is too near the frontier : She 
has approached it, as it were, by all the nev/ force of 
the neighbours she has acquired. It is of little con- 
sequence whether principalities of the lowest order 
be far or near : but it is not the same with respect to 
the neighbourhood of great military powers. Be- 
sides, here should be kept in mind the system adopt- 
ed by armies, when superior in numbers, or when 
victorious, of marching straight to the capital ; mask- 
ing the strong places left in the rear. The French 
have taught this lesson in the great wars of the revo- 
lution; it has finally been employed against them. A 
decisive success may conduct the enemy to the gates 
of Paris; in this case,^the efforts of defence and of 



137 

precaution, should be commensurate with the impor- 
tance of such a result. 

Madrid, Vienna, Berlin, are one thing; Paris and 
London, are quite another. The affairs of two mo- 
narchies are transacted in the two capitals, with those 
of a part of Europe, and of the world. The fate of 
such centres of affairs decides that of the empire it- 
self; invasion deranges the immense machines of the 
government which rules them ; and the attraction of 
these rich spoils cannot fail to inflame the ardour of the 
enemy. Every thing, therefore, commands France to 
complete her defensive system in the part of her fron- 
tiers it has not yet reached; and to invest it with all 
the means of defence which art can employ, and which 
France more than any country can perfect. 

In consequence of the former system, the line of 
the Somme has been abandoned. It should be re- 
established ; the avenues should also be closed which 
are open from Luxemburgh to Paris; and from Basle 
and Geneva to Lyons; which caus^ these two capi- 
tals of France to be altogether exposed. It may be 
recollected that in the war of the Spanish succession, 
the enemy's partizans were seen to post themselves 
upon the bridge of Sevres, to carry off the dauphin, 
at the moment in which general Mercy penetrated by 
the upper Rhine ! But this is not all: to place France 
in a state of complete defence, her interior must con- 
tain fortified points and arsenals. In this respect, the 
defensive system of France continues to offer a sin- 
gular distribution of its means. From Arras to Per- 
pignan and Bayonne; that is, in all the length, as well 
as breadth of this country, there does not exist a sin- 
gle fortified point. An army repulsed from the fron- 



138 

tier could retreat to no place of strength, for support 
or security. In all this space there are but one of 
two secondary arsenals. * 

The rivers in France are not very extensive ; a part 
of the year they are no better than channels of sand ; 
— The Loire itself, which is represented as marked 
by nature for the line of defence, during half the year 
would defend nothing; for want of water. The 
country it should protect, that on its left, and which 
comprehends Sologne, Berry, Poitou and the Limou- 
sin, is the most sterile part of France. An army 
would be unable to subsist there; and to all who 
were acquainted with this country, the resolution 
taken by the army of the Loire to defend its banks, 
must have appeared to be rather an impulse of mili- 
tary enthusiasm — than a deliberate calculation : for it 
was very evident that, facing an enemy superior in 
number, without other defence than a sandy beach, 
at a great distance from arsenals, this army could not 
have defended the position an instant. This want of 
arsenals in the interior of France, would render it im- 
possible to sustain a war there ; especially, with tlie 
present disposition of the roads; which are all in 
right lines from the capital, and wholly wanting in a 
transverse direction. With the immoderate use of ar- 
tillery, as it is employed in modern warfare, an army 
which should have to combat in the interior would 
be forced to drag this heavy and embarrassing train 
from distances which would paralize all its move- 
ments. 

This object is all-important for the defence of 
France; it cannot escape the penetration of its govern- 
ment. All is changed around France. The bases of 



U9 

Jier security are displaced; she can no longer repose 
upon her ancient supports ; nor slumber upon her an- 
cient points of repose; for in these are found the ac- 
tual dangers. 

This change in the environs of France has given 
a new face to her frontiers; and urges her to calculate 
her defence upon the new probabilities of attack she 
may apprehend. 

From the time of Francis I. French diplomacy ha:§ 
displayed great ability; under Louis XV. it expe- 
xienced an eclipse in its ostensible part, the ministry; 
but maintained itself with a distinction, necessarily 
veiled, in that part which was concealed; this part 
was directed by the Count de Broglie and Favier. 
Diplomacy consists of two things, the system itself; 
and the agents who carry it into effect. 

Natural ability will never be wanting in France; 
but ability, the result of study and of a good school, 
is not frequently seen there. The French have such 
an aptitude to know all, to understand all, and to ex- 
press all, that they supply by this faculty what others 
only acquire by a long course of study ! They may 
rather be said to create, and to divine, than to learn. 

Unfortunately France has wanted stability in her 
system, and thus has annulled the superiority oi ta- 
lent for which her negotiators have been distinguish-* 
ed. This system was like the government, which 
had its modes and caprices. Each new minister gave 
it a new modelling, and the direction that best suited 
his interests. 

A corrupt cardinal, Dubois, at the same time prime 
minister of France, and pensioner of England, aban^ 
dons the system to her: another oardinaU attacked by 



140 

the timidities of old age, also marches in the train of 
England; a third cardinal, in 1756, abandons himself 
to Austria; and, to establish the empire of a woman 
over insulted France, overthrows in a day the work 
of Richelieu, so laboriously maintained by Louis 
XIV. Louis XV. passed the last twenty years of 
his reign floating at the pleasure of the winds; which 
pushed him sometimes in one direction and sometimes 
in another. He left embarrassments to his successor, 
which condemned him to a versatility not in his cha- 
racter. 

The convention embraced the system of conquest; 
Napoleon had a mind to new model the world; what 
this has led to, and what it has cost, is known but too 
well. Example speaks, occasion invites, time per- 
mits to resume the work, and to lay solid foundations. 

Diplomacy is no more an occult science than the 
construction of new roads; in every country it ad- 
mits of principles, of rules and bases; it operates upon 
a subject that is certain, that contains nothing ficti- 
tious. Accordingly, these bases are to be determined, 
and established; upon which may then be raised an 
indestructible edifice. 

The choice of agents demands equal care. In a 
diplomatic agent are two men; one, acting according 
to the instructions of his constituents; another, com- 
municating to them the documents upon which they 
must, themselves, be regulated; if, in the first case, 
he is subordinate and almost passive, in the second 
he is active, and, as it were, superior. In the first, 
he has a mandate to fulfil; in the second, a watchlight 
to present. His character, as is perceived, is double; 
Ht the nomination of a diplomatic agent, a commei'ce 



141 

of intelligence is established between the representa- 
tive and the constituent; a commerce which, as it 
respects an able direction of affairs, places them on a 
line of equality. 

It is manifest how important to governments are 
those who are to serve them, instead of eyes and of 
ears, and, often, of interpreters also. A too general 
practice, excepting in England, has shared the diplo- 
matic parts between two performers, as upon the 
theatres of the ancients; where some made the ges- 
tures, while, others pronounced the words. 

The diplomatic representation is generally con- 
ferred on members of the high classes of society, 
supported by men experienced in affairs; who gain by 
them reputation and fortune. The titulary ministers 
are, as it were, the decorations of a diplomatic mis- 
sion, while the subordinates are its essential. This 
order is vicious, alike with whatever places incapa- 
city in the first rank, and merit in the second; it also 
prevails exclusively in absolute monarchies; in Eng- 
land it does not occur, whose representative govern- 
ment admits not fictions with the same facility : and 
commands the employment of men, not according to 
their external and conventional qualities, but their in- 
trinsic and absolute worth. Man is weighed like 
gold; and those who are found to lack weight, are 
rejected as base coin. 

France, after so many toils, having at length ac- 
quired a representative government, feels the need of 
acting upon these principles, and of no longer con- 
fiding the direction of her affairs abroad, to men, 
whose most apparent title, and ground of vocation to 



142 

high public employments, are discovered in their 
names; or in their talents to amuse. 

There are countries in which men are so fortunate 
as to be born ambassadors, as well as colonels, and 
presidents of parliament; in these countries too, they 
acquit themselves in one, at least as well as in another 
of these functions. It is time, at length, to quit these 
prepossessions for qualities which depend on the 
chance of birth; it is far safer to cherish those dic- 
tated by labour, by merit, by profound knowledge of 
nations, and their interests; titles which never deceive. 
France is better prepared than any other country of 
Europe, to exhibit agents of diplomacy skilled in the 
direction of affairs, and of men. For in no other go- 
vernment do the second ranks of administration pos- 
sess men equal to those, who in France have occupied 
this part of the government. The principal secretaries 
in the different departments, as well as the secretaries 
of embassies, were generally distinguished men; many 
have acquired names no less illustrious than the mi- 
nisters themselves; and a judgment can be formed of 
what they would have done, from what those have 
done, whom the revolution permitted to give full 
scope to their talents. 

France proper has no schools of public law; we 
must go to Strasburgh for them; as it appears, it is a 
German institution, of which France has made a sort 
of conquest from Germany, with the city in which it 
is established; on the contrary, these schools have 
become very numerous in Germany. The want of 
them with us is seriously felt. A man, who wishes 
to gain instruction, in this part, is destitute of the 
proper means; he is reduced to resources such as he 



143 

can procure for himself. Schools of civil law abound^ 
the Roman law is taught every where; but no where 
is taught the public law which governs the different 
countries of Europe in their reciprocal relations; in 
•no place are lessons given suitable to form diplomatic 
agents; there are many books upon these matters; 
because they are found abundantly upon all; but 
schools are absolutely wanting; and men learn while 
acting, instead of acting, as good order dictates, after 
having learnt. 



eccentricity to the political or^ 



144- 

CHAPTER IV. 

Division of the South of Europe. 

This division inclu(Jes all the countries situated 
beyond the Alps and tjhe Pyrenees; Italy, Spain, and 
Portugal. j 

The two first general characters observable in this 
division are, 

1. Its geographical 
der of the continent. 

2. The inutility of tjhese three countries, as it res- 
pects this order. , 

The European policy is formed, and w^ill in future 
be formed, in the nor^i, and among the Germanic na- 
tions : neither Spain r^ior Portugal can reach it in any 
manner. 

Italy could take i^o part in it, but by overleaping 
the barrier of the AIIds. — To accomplish this would 
require her to be independent, and mcorporated into 
one free nation. Bpt while she is cut up into many 
sovereignties 5 while; she appertains for the greater 
part, to a German p^wer, she has no means of taking 
a direct part, and for her own account, in the general 
policy. The Austrian part of Italy holds the same 
relation to this ord^r, which is held by Bohemia and 
the other members' of the Austrian monarchy : a mo- 
narchy formed of j the wrecks of several states, and 
members torn froiji four different nations ; the Ger- 
mans, the Hungarians, the Poles, and the Italians. 



145 

Austria is the monarchy of the four nations. The 
Austrian power follows not the ordinary rule of forraa-i 
tion for other states. In general the latter are formed 
either of a single nation, or of a principal nation, in- 
creased by accessories inferior to itself; whereas in 
Austria, the parts of the state are almost equal, though 
foreign to each other; which occasions it to resemble 
a confederation of states subject to the same chief. 

The most considerable state of Italy, Naples, is 
precisely that which is found the most remote from 
Europe; as if all had conspired to annul this country. 
The German nations and all the North were no- 
thing, when Rome and Italy were all : Rome and 
Italy have dwindled to nothing, since Germany and 
the North have become all. New actors have 
invaded the scene of the world, and have remained 
its masters. — Sad but inevitable result of the passage 
of the emperors to Constantinople, and the desertion 
in which it left Italy. Abandoned to herself, she 
was unable to hold together. Becoming the final 
stage of the incursions of the northern barbarians, 
this country fell in pieces, like a brittle glass, in their 
ferocious hands. Each seized some of its fragments, 
and was exclusively employed in maintaining what 
had fallen to his share; without even thinking of the 
country as a whole, no more than of its harmony with 
the general order; of which, besides, in these remote 
times no idea had been formed. The policy of the 
popes followed to increase the evil, and to render it 
irremediable. Feeble and unarmed, as they were, 
the near vicinity of the strong and the armed, little 
suited their convenience. They would fain have ex- 
pelled the French and German barbarians from Italy: 



146 

as was said by Julius II. : the popes would have been 
wholly Italians if Italy had appertained wholly to 
them; but wanting the power to possess it exclusively, 
they always inclined to see it shared between many ; 
because the partition would prevent there being any 
stronger than them ; the more the sovereignty was 
subdivided, the more their security and relative power 
were increased. This uniform basis of the papal poli- 
cy should be fully discerned ; it has had a decisive 
influence upon the destiny of Italy ; and was dictated 
by the nature of this singular power. Invaded, ra- 
vaged, and possessed alternately, during six hundred 
years, by the Spaniards, the French, the Germans, 
Italy has closed her career of vicissitudes in becoming 
Austrian : for such in fact she is, as to the largest and 
richest half; and besides, she is Austrian, by the in- 
fluence which the possession of this half confers upon 
Austria. Austria governs in Italy as in one of her 
ovv^n provinces; and her preponderance excludes from 
it all manner of balance. 

France only would be able to counterbalance it, 
but she is not in contact with Italy at any point; whilst 
the whole body of the Austrian monarchy presses di- 
rectly upon it. France would have to wait for its 
gates to be opened for her ; Austria holds all the keys 
of Italy, and covers the greatest part of it herself, 
France would have to operate with, and amongst 
distrustful foreigners, more impressed by the disgusts 
a great benefit may leave after it, than by the gratitude 
it ought to inspire: Austria would be at home in every 
part of Italy : France possesses in that country not a 
single point of support. — From Alexandria to Palma 
Nuova, Austria is supported by a chain of forti'esses 



147 

and of arsenals, which present her all the means of 
attack and of defence, and are strengthened by the 
lines of the rivers which border them. 

The Austrian possession of upper Italy has very 
solid bases. The sea, the Alps, the Po, the Ticino, 
the Adda, the Mincio, the lake of Guarda, the Adige, 
the Tagliamento, the Yzonzo, Alexandria, Pavia, 
Piggizgithone, Mantua, Peschiera, Verona, Venice, 
and behind these lines of fortresses, and of rivers, the 
whole body of the Austrian monarchy, prepared to 
sustain them, and pour upon Italy new swarms of de- 
fenders. What has not Austria gained by the ex- 
change of her distant and precarious possession of 
Belgium, for a property so well secured by its conti- 
guity! Italy can only be considered therefore as an 
Austrian province; and it is only in respect to the 
force which it adds to Austria, that it continues to 
connect with the political order. 

Piedmont is an atom, in comparison with Austria. 
The gaoler of the Alps may indeed place himself in 
a sort of opposition to France by favour of this baiV 
rier; his force is derived from this position, which 
derives but little from him: And even had he to 
defend it singly against France, the inequality of the 
two states would soon have effaced, and as it were 
levelled, the inequality of the soil which separates 
them. But, it is not the same with Piedmont in re- 
gard to Austi'ia; on this side all is open; here Pied- 
mont is feeble, and Austria impregnably strong: the 
latter seized one of those decisive moments on which 
depends the fate of empires, that in which her aid 
was indispensable, to supply herself with all the ob- 
jects which she found to her liking in Italy; accord- 



148 

ingly she paused at the confines of I^iedmont, where 
it must either have been annulled, or left as it is seen. 
But she has reserved for herself, a superior power, all 
the commanding positions, which Should have been 
assigned to Piedment, as the inferior power. For the 
latter, they would only have been defensive ; held by 
Austria, they are truly oiFensive. Thus Alexandria 
an ancient dependency of Piedmont, was defensive 
as the appendage of this state : in the hands of Aus- 
tria, it is openly offensive against Piedmont; in this 
case there is a manifest error in the distribution of 
parts. The more Austria extended herself in Italy, 
the more it became necessary to strengthen the fron- 
tiers of Piedmont. To avoid opposing the too strong 
against the too feeble, Genoa was given to the latter; 
but the protection of this city and its sea- coast will 
always absorb a part of its forces. The congress of 
Vienna has proceeded strangely in regard to Italy. 
A first fault always draws after it others. It has 
committed that of abandoning Poland to Russia : this 
encroachment, offensive against the rest of Europe, 
rendered it necessary tostreng then Prussia, and Aus- 
tria, the first neighbours of this formidable power. 
The firm establishment of Prussia was sacrificed to 
abstractions of undefinable rights, which were immo- 
lated on one side, while on the other, they were 
maintained at any price. It was seen that the cession 
of upper Italy to Austria, required that Piedmont 
should be strengthened in proportion; for this pur- 
pose the congress gives to that power the state of 
Genoa; almost as proper to enfeeble, as to strengthen 
it; since Genoa cannot supply the military, and conti- 
nental force, of which Piedmont had need to oppose 



149 

.'iustria, a continental power. Genoa is better C£iU 
culated to increase maritime force, than to augment 
continental and military power. Genoa would prove 
more effectual against France, than against Austria; 
yet against the latter is Piedmont to be defended. 
No contradiction of sense, as appears, has been spar- 
ed in this arrangement. Since the subject hi agita- 
tion was to arrange Italy ; and the necessity was pei"- 
ceived of strengthening the state which bordered on 
Italian Austria, the material of its establishment should 
have been extended; it should have been taken from 
whatever was found disposable in this country. Par- 
ma, Lucca, Tuscany should have been annexed tb 
Piedmont, to compose the requisite degree of forces 
On this occasion, the interests of states were in ques- 
tion — but the aggrandizement of families was only 
regarded; the safety of Europe was neglected, to 
serve the convenience of individuals; the Austrian 
power has been swoln by such accessories as Mode- 
na, Parma, and Tuscany. 

The house of Bourbon has equally valid rigtitis 
upon Parma, with those of Austria upon Tuscany — - 
their accession to these two thrones, and their fall, are 
both of the fsame date; they had both equally abdica- 
ted by treaties. 

What right could re-establish the one, and hold the 
other excluded : in this is aught visible but the de- 
crees of force? 

From all these incongruities, dictated by the insa- 
tiable avidity of individuals, it has resulted that Italy 
is null for political Europe ; that this country which 
might and should be a very influential member of the 
pAiropean association, is no better than a reeess jfpi* 



150 

the political order ; in reference to which, it is about 
to become again, what it was before the revolution, a 
species of museum visited by foreigners; inhabited 
by men divested of the great motives which tend 
every where to develope the intellectual faculties, and 
the noblest affections that can elevate the heart of 
man. Italy is thus condemned to a political, and her 
iiihabitants to a moral, siesta. Napoleon had begun 
to rouse her from her long slumber. But how far 
was he from having laboured with the latitude of 
views corresponding to such a creation! Like ano- 
ther Romulus, he might have become the founder of 
a new Rome. But for this, he should have quitted 
the track worn by the routine of ages, and instead of 
getting bewildered in the divisions of Italy which 
shared it in three portions, one French, another Ita- 
lian, a third Neapolitan; he should have acted with 
tlie decision and the freedom authorized by circum- 
stances, and should have cast in a single mould, or at 
the most in two, but equally Italian, either the totality 
of Italy, or the tw^o Italics; upper, and lower. Then 
Italy would have re-appeared with splendour upon 
tlie scene of the world; and Europe would have ac- 
quired a new member, of great weight in her balance. 
Napoleon might have endowed Italy with this new 
life, and Europe with this new benefit; an opportu- 
nity single in the world; and the more to be regret- 
ted, since ages will not present such another. 

The destiny of Napoleon was perhaps decided, with 
that of Europe, and of France, by the ill choice he 
made in his Italian establishment. A g-reat kingdom 
of Italy would have been a more faithful, and more 
solid ally than a, king of Naples; who, in proportion 



151 

to the inferiority of his forces, might ahvays consicler 
himself as menaced by his creator; and compelled, 
even by a regard for his own safety, to combat for him 
coldly, or, better still, to league with hiis enemies; 
the inevitable result of half measures, of half means, 
this poison of affairs, which the most disastrous cap- 
rice could alone have suggested, in a genius whose 
constituent faculty was the absence of limits. In 
fine, the evil is done, and Italy has thus relapsed into 
her palsy of a thousand years; useless to others as to 
herself; present upon the geographical map of Eu- 
rope, but effaced from her political map. The Ita- 
lians would have appeared with glory upon this thea- 
tre; for they have all the qualities required to form 
great actors; with such power in the arts and sciences, 
they must be equally capable of excellence in other 
pursuits; and the more extensive the career, the bet- 
ter they would fill it; acute, ardent, active, ingenious, 
industrious, with sufficient motives, what w\^nt they 
which others possess; and what have others in greater 
perfection? The degeneracy with which, upon some 
points, the Italians are reproached, is the effect of 
their institutions. Degrading and vicious institutions, 
in process of time, will affect the character of a peo- 
ple, as the water-drop, by its repeated fall, acts upon 
the stone. They have the same fatal power of obli- 
terating the virtues of a nation. 

The restoration of Italy was of but a few years 
date, and already the Italy of 1814, was no longer the 
Italy of 1810. 

If the glimmer of a dawning day had sufficed to 
dissipate many clouds, what might it not have pro- 
duced when it should have enlightened all with its 



152 

yays, and warmed all with its fires! Who can conteni' 
plate without grief this new eclipse of Italy, and see 
her sink back into the tomb from which she had en- 
franchised herself so recently! If upper Italy apper- 
tain to Austria, lower Italy may be considered as 
English, Naples is English; much more, the Italian 
seas are all English? by the occupation of Gibraltar, 
of Malta, ancl of Corfu, appendages of England. 
From these three stations she controls the two seas 
which bathe the shores of Italy. Every Italian ves- 
sel meets an English barrier both on entering, and 
leaving these seas. 

The passage is guarded, and none can avoid this 
species of Custom-house, at the same time commer- 
cial and military, which England has established 
upon th^se three commanding points of the Mediter- 
ranean. The petty princes of Italy at Parma, at 
Modena, at Lucca, at Florence, have no connexion 
with politics. They ^re merely great armorial fees 
of a crown; fair and lucrative endowments for indivi-, 
duals, but absolute nullities, as it respects policy. 

The entire history of Spain may be divided int® 
three great epochs. 

The first, from the invasion of the Moors until their 
expulsion. 

The second, from the accession of the house of 
Austria, until that of the house of Bourbon. 

The third, from the accession of this family, until 
the revolution of France, and of Spanish America. 

In the first, Spain was exclusively occupied by her 
own affairs and Africa. 

In thq sQcond, she menaced the liberties of Eiv 
^ope. 



153 

In the third, her entire attention was directed to- 
wards South America. 

A fourth epoch is approaching, in which she will 
be relieved from all solicitude with respect to Ame- 
rica. 

During the reigns of the princes of the house of 
Austria, Spain, comprehending the domains of the 
house of Burgundy, possessed Belgium, Flanders, 
Artois, Holland, Luxembourg, Burgundy, andFranche 
Comte; in Italy, Naples, the Milanese, with Sicily, 
and Sardinia. 

Also, Charles V. adding the imperial crown as a 
pinnacle to this immense power; having at his dispo- 
sal a people steeled by six hundred years of combats, 
elated by the conquest, and strengthened by the trea- 
sures of the New World, lanched into the project of 
universal domination; to which he felt himself invited 
by the aspect of this splendid apparatus of power, 
and by the confidence he placed in the constancy of 
such a people as the Spaniards. Perhaps he might; 
have accomplished this pjan, but for the opposition 
he found in the reformation; which diverted his atten- 
tion to other objects, and saved Europe. His suc- 
cessors, Philip III., Philip IV., Charles II., inherited 
none of his splendid genius, nor of the dark, brooding 
policy of his son, Philip II. The monarchy was in 
extremity, when the house of Bourbon came, as it 
were, to its succour ; then occurred a great revolution 
in this monarchy. The treaty of Uti-echt had, indeed, 
secured Spain to the house of Bourbon, but Spain 
only; it had retrenched all the possessions by which 
she communicated with the rest of Europe. From 
that time her situation was cljiangedj she was detach- 



154 

ed, as it were, from Europe, having no other relations 
in this last .epoch, but those with America; as, in the 
first, she had been restricted to a connexion with 
Africa. 

This state has continued during all the eighteenth 
century; for this space of time Spain was all in Ame- 
rica, and nothing in Europe; a power wholly colonial, 
and in no degree continental; a canal through which 
the riches of one world flowed into the other; retain- 
ing for herself but the smallest part; having an in- 
fluence upon the balance of commerce, but excluded 
from that of power. 

At the present day all this is changed; South Ame- 
rica separates with violence from Spain : instead of 
ruling there, she must combat those who disclaim 
all subjection, inured to war, and inflamed by an ob- 
stinate struggle : instead of receiving its treasures, she 
must exhaust her own to retain these sources of 
wealth, which tend in all parts to escape her. All 
therefore is changed for Spain, and henceforth her 
futurity is covered by an impenetrable veil. France 
separates her from the rest of the continent ; she can 
neither reach that, nor can it reach her. England 
with her fleets is her only enemy : and, from before 
Cadiz she alarms, and governs Madrid. Spain should 
no longer be numbered among the continental powers. 
The policy of the continent being transacted in the 
north, and in Germany, Spain has no means to influ- 
ence it directly. It would be only in the case of a 
menacing attack against France that she could shew 
herself, and take part in a continental transaction ; and, 
even in this case, it is dubious how far her succours 
could be of any avail. In the state to which Spain 



IBS 

is reduced, would it not be a disastrous illusion to 
place any confidence in her support? This unfortu- 
nate country hastens visibly towards an inevitable 
catastrophe. The wrong course pursued in 1814 has 
conducted Spain to the brink of frightful precipices, 
which deepen every day. It is evident that a great 
revolution threatens Spain ; and considering the ele- 
ments which compose the Spanish character, it is per- 
ceived with an alarming certainty, that it will be ter- 
rible. Never has there been assembled more mate- 
rials proper to kindle and feed a conflagration ; dis- 
cord, foreign war, exhaustion of the revenues, a dis- 
credit that cannot increase, the predominance of ideas, 
and of plans fitted to ruin a country; superstition, ex- 
clusion, vengeance, separation of casts; such is the 
train of perdition, in the midst of which moves, or 
rather jolts, and drags, unfortunate Spain ! She has 
no money, and she makes war upon the counby that 
would furnish it, had she the sense to leave it tran- 
quil. She is poor in population ; and she sends the 
most robust of her sons to become extinct in the 
fields, and the fens, of South America; she has the 
greatest need of commerce, and she exposes it to be 
preyed upon by swarms of hostile cruisers. Never 
did there exist a more cruel position, nor one nearer 
the brink of an abyss. Ages, therefore, must transpire 
before Spain could become of the smallest utility to 
France ; her alliance could only be an incumbrance 
for the latter; for it would always be requisite to de- 
fend Spain, and always impossible to be defended by 
her. Spain witliout France, has no power against 
any. It was sufficiently perceived, when cardinal 
Alberoni, lanchino- into a career the extent of which 



156 

lie had not compared with his forces, ventured singly; 
to brave England, and the emperor of Germany ; in 
one dciy his mad projects perished, before Messina, 
with the ships of Spain. Spain is no longer any thing 
as to Europe : what she will become without America 
must be seen hereafter* South America did not en- 
rich her, when she possessed it ; in separating from 
her, it completes her ruin ; melancholy but certain re- 
sult of a government which, like that of the Turks, 
remains stationary, while improvement is advancing 
in every other quarter; which occasions the culture of 
the mind, and of the earth, to be neglected equally: 
and terminates in establishing a permanent inferiority 
to the rest of mankind. 

Portugal is no less foreign to the general policy of 
the continent. Such was already its habitual state 
when the sovereign resided in the midst of it; still 
more will it remain estranged from this general order 
while the sovereign inhabits another hemisphere. 

It is difficult to speak of a country whose conditio!! 
is not fixed, and such is the state of Portugal. It 
carmot be destined to continue what it is, the province 
of an American kingdom. This would be contrary 
to the nature of things, as well as to the general order 
of Europe; which does not permit that one of its parts 
should be the colony of another world, and have fre- 
quent occasion to demand answers at Brazil, relating 
to the affairs of Europe. 

On this occasion it may be remarked that many 
things in Europe are provisional. The force of cir- 
cumstances has caused them to be admitted, and as 
it w^ere, overlooked : the urgency of affairs, the need 
of rapid results, have occasioned a connivance at these 



157 

-defects ; but time will bring them again into notice m 
proportion as the thorns shall become more sensible, 
and urge a recurrence to amendments. Such is the 
eternal march of things; let us leave it for time to 
introduce them, Spain and Portugal, should there- 
fore be brought as accessories only, into the balance 
of the power of Europe. These states are found 
between two existences, the one drawing to a conclu- 
sion, the other commencing; which forbids us to re- 
cognise in them any that is fixed and determinate; 
but what is not equally forbidden; what, on the con- 
trary, excites a strong sympathy in every feeling heart, 
is the cruel destiny of these two nations. Behold two 
nations brave and intellectual, capable of every spe- 
cies of heroism, who have triumphed over the se- 
verest trials; who have run the race of glory in the 
longest, and the rudest toils; who, inspired only by 
their own genius, have conquered two worlds, and 
have filled them with the terrors of their name and of 
their glory; behold them effaced from the scene of 
the world; abandoned to the exclusive direction of 
governments, without capacity, as without energy, 
without foresight, as without conduct, without calcu- 
lations, as without economy, the sport of courtiers, as 
of prejudices; abandoned equally to superstition, and 
to licentiousness. Courts half monastic have utterly 
ruined two great nations, so illustrious in the past I 
They have caused them to lose the theatres of their 
ancient exploits, and the sources of their future 
wealth. Without carrying admiration of the Spa- 
niards so far as party spirit has made fashionable of 
late, still, it is impossible not to deplore the fate of a 



158 

people capable of displaying so much devotion, and 
of submitting to such sacrifices. Such a people 
should be of more importance than w hat they have 
been made. The Spaniards, like the Orientals, and 
the Africans, are never inclined to attack others; but 
they defend themselves at home with the obstinacy, 
and the courage of the lion pressed in his retreat; as 
they mingle not with other nations, whose intercourse 
they have no wish to cultivate, and to whom, on their 
part, they present few attractions, their natural aver- 
sion to strangers enters for half in their efforts to re- 
pulse their attacks; this motive, adding to the natural 
courage of these people, makes them invincible upon 
their own ground, and disposes them to the most ex- 
traordinary acts to remain its masters. It is plain 
what might be made of men who unite in a high de- 
gree the requisite qualities for great things; vivacity 
of intellect, ardour of imagination, and, almost always, 
intense excitement of passion; what rich materials 
for an able government! Seeing what is done every 
day with the blocks of marble fashioned in the north, 
all must be aware what might be obtained from 
men with souls of fire, in whom the springs of pas- 
sion are always ready t© display their terrible energy. 
Very superficial observers attribute the actual torpor 
of the Spaniards to their climate, forgetting what they 
have achieved in all the past, under the fires of the 
same sun; that of Rome was not of ice, at the time 
when the sons of Romulus overwhelmed the subject 
world; and, at this day, the Orientals, and the Arabs, 
are seen slumbering in the same regions, where, in 
other times, and with other masters, they conquered 
whatever their formidable scimetar could reach. Let 



15? 

us close this article of the division of the south with 
a general observation. 

Europe contains, less Turkey, 150,000,000 ^ f 
men. The division of the south has a population of 
28,000,000 of inhabitants: thus Ave see a fifth part of 
the European association rendered useless to its ge- 
neral action, and, as it were, paralyzed ^ 



160 



ENGLAND. 



This country, from its geographical position, is^ 
even more than France, eccentric to the sphere ol' 
Europe, and is unfortunately, therefore, but the bet- 
ter adapted to control it; since she has nothing to ap- 
prehend from that quarter. 

England, though separated from the continent, has 
jidways endeavoured to govern it, in opposition to her 
rival France. Continental connexions, though strong- 
ly reprobated by one class of politicians in England, 
are, on the contrary,, for the government, the object 
of a most active solicitude, which would not tolerate 
the firing of a single cannon in Europe without its 
permission : it would be seen hastening to arrest alt 
encroachment, which might endanger the equilibrium. 
Such has been its history for the last hundred years. 
This policy, it must be confessed, is large, while the 
first is narrow ; the latter re-unites England to the 
continent, and fills up, as it were, the space which 
separates them; the former confines England at home, 
and tends only to render now applicable, what the 
poet says of ancient Great Britain : 

Etpejiitus toto divisos oibe Britannos. 

Forecast and dignity have traced tlie route which 
England has pursued r And also, how much has she 



161 

profited by having considered objects from this higli 
elevation; and by having duly respected herself! Her 
last conflict continued for twenty years ; what obsti- 
nate toil can achieve, has been seen: it has raised 
England to pre-eminence among European powers; 
England evidently marches at their head. It was 
England, who in this long contest, ever resolute in 
her opposition; while all changed around her; excited 
to combats, reconciled differences, and filled every 
hand with weapons and with gold. The empire oi 
England is immense, as indestructible. More than 
sixty millions of men either in Europe, or Asia, or 
America, obey her laws. She colonizes the world, 
and covers it with Englsh population. She girds 
the globe with a chain of posts, disposed with art 
around its circumference; thus causing every avenue, 
and every passage from one part to another, to be 
under her control, and as it were under her key. 
From Heligoland to Madras, and from the Ganges 
to Hudson's Bay; at Jersey, at Gibralter, at Corfu, at 
Malta, at the Cape of Good Hope, at St. Helena, at 
the Isle of France, Ceylon, Antigua, Trinidad, Jamai- 
ca, Halifax, every where, she is found seated upon 
rocks, or placed upon inaccessible islands, every 
where in safety herself, every where menacing others. 
What arms cannot effect, her commerce accomplishes, 
abounding in industry no less than in wealth, effect 
and cause of each other; the English power is em- 
ployed above all to foster commerce, of which itself 
is the fruit and lends it a continual support. This 
power resulting from naval force is immense; and 
there presents nothing among any people, or in any 
epoch of history which can be compared to it. 



16'2 

It surpasses all the powers which Europe united 
could oppose to it : and to shiver this rod of brass ex- 
tended over the world, will require the deliverers pre- 
pared by fate in America to have acquired all their 
strength; then, but only then, it would be possible 
to reduce England to proportions less oppressive for 
the rest of the universe. Till this time arrive there 
is nothing to resist her, nothing to oppose her : She 
can receive no laws but from herself. Other nations 
possess colonies only during her good pleasure : she 
alone holds them by an inalienable title; since her 
navy covers them with an impenetrable egis. While 
Spain in reality possessed her colonies of America, 
England contented herself with knocking at their 
gates, and introducing the products of her manufac- 
tures; obtaining in return those of its soil, and especi- 
ally of its mines. But at present she rushes towards 
these opulent regions; and faithful to her plan, she 
endeavours to naturalize in them the taste for her 
commodities. Thus she makes a conquest of what- 
ever is really useful in America, and of that which is 
likely to attach it to her forever. For her it is an ac- 
quisition of the greatest value, and one that will much 
enlarge the basis of her double power, her navy and 
commerce. The latter, creating incessantly new 
bases of credit, imparts to England the faculty to 
bear without sinking, a burden, the model of which 
is found in no part of history: and the power of this 
commerce and of this credit combined is so great, 
that the revenue of England has been seen to increase, 
in the course of the present year, more than a hun- 
dred millions:* not by means of new taxes, symp- 

* Of Francs. 



163 

toms and causes of disasters, as they are established 
and operate in most other countries; but by the sole 
effect of her increasing prosperity; thus displaying to 
other nations not only prosperity, but the true source 
whence it flows. 

During the late war, England kept on foot a very 
numerous army : this army entering the career a no- 
vice, required the aid of experience, and of time, to 
be enabled to cope with the most distinguished 
troops of Europe; it has finally contributed to renew 
the cruel days of Cressy, and of Poitiers. It was evi- 
dent that as it became inured to war, this army 
would ultimately prove a match for any other. It 
was sufficient to reflect that diligent and industrious 
men, upon any point, could not long remain inferior 
to their fellows; that study and observation would 
soon approach them, and fill up the distance at first 
remarked between them. 

If the melancholy results of governments without 
capacity, as without energy, have been remarked in 
the picture w^e have exhibited of Spain, and of Portu- 
gal; in the greatness of England must be recognised, 
on the other hand, the effects of the admirable govern- 
ment she has enjoyed; on both sides, the effects cor- 
respond with perfect exactness to their causes. This 
government has done all; from its establishment, the 
prosperities of England may be dated: they commenc- 
ed with the complete confirmation of the English con- 
stitution; they have developed themselves by its side, 
and in the same proportions. Credit was born in the 
bosom of this constitution, and is cherished every in- 
stant by its genial warmth : fixed and immutable, it 
has created a policy immutable, like itself. When 



164. 

this constitution was misunderstood or combated,. 
Charles II. and James II. were pensioners of Lewis 
XIV. and demanded the succour of his troops against 
their own subjects. History has preserved the secret 
notes of these monarchs. But since in England 
every thing turns upon a constitution the sole guide 
of her counsels, all is changed : force has increased 
with fidelity to law, and stability in ideas: and England 
always combating, always persevering, supported 
upon a basis of solid institutions, is arrived at the 
glorious and triumphant goal 5 the worthy recompense 
of great efforts and of clear views; as it is a solemn 
proclamation of the advantage of a government which 
keeps the springs of a nation in a continual state of 
just tension ; which prepares all its measures by the 
fire, and by the light of public discussion; which de- 
feats selfish designs, which excludes caprice, and 
which imposes a necessity of leaving the helm to the 
ablest pilot. Though the prosperity of England is 
already a species of phenomenon, yet we must pre- 
pare to see it greatly increased by an approaching 
event, destined to have a decisive influence upon the 
fate of all the nations of the world; the liberty of 
South America. This liberty prepares a new futu- 
rity for the universe; and will open to it sources of 
ivealth, as yet unknown among men. England, 
tvho with unwearied pace pursues this wealth in 
every part of the globe, cannot fail to appropriate its 
largest portion; her industry, her activity, her capitals, 
give her the first claims at its distribution: South 
America has become her warehouse, and her saga- 
city has not deceived her in the choice of means to 
secure the possession. The government has no oe- 



165 

casion to interfere in this affair; perhaps those w\to 
administer it are even disinclined towards this great 
change; to which their personal position may tend to 
render them averse; it is the body of the nation which 
acts, and which pursues the direction indicated by its 
interest. Individuals supply to America — what the 
government has pledged itself not to give her; it ob- 
serves a legal neutrality, but allows private enterprize 
to fulfil the wishes of the nation. It knows that in 
working for themselves, they must also work for 
England; who finally becomes the associate of their 
advantages, and as it were the common reservoir in 
which all their profits are deposited. In tliis parti- 
cular, the address of the government has been admir- 
able. Scarcely are the new governments formed in 
America, when that of England has already left all 
its subjects at liberty to turn their speculations in this 
direction. Though America comes openly in search 
of succours in England : though enlistments are made 
for America, with the same publicity as for India; 
the government sees nothing, hears nothing: it nei- 
ther pafTticipates nor opposes; for it knows that these-, 
succours, that these auxiliaries, will act equally upon 
the affections, and upon the tastes of America, and 
will dispose her to espouse the interests of England. 
A sound policy, and not unworthy of imitation. The 
commerce of America, like all others, will take the. 
direction of the north of Europe; England is upon 
the route, she must, therefore, participate in it 
largely. 

The British kingdoms contain 18,000,000 of inha- 
bitants; a larger number than they ever had. Com- 
merce and civilisation, which have extended all the 

\ a 



166 

iirts, and have caused their application to all the parts 
of human existence, account for this increase. The 
same causes will continue to act according to their 
appropriate principles, and this they cannot fail to do 
with great energy. The English population will in- 
crease more from commerce than agriculture; because 
the spaces are wanting for the extension of the latter, 
whereas those of commerce are enlarged by its own 
progress. Agriculture is a limited mean; commerce 
is a horizon without bounds. The Irish population 
will increase both by commerce, and agriculture; be- 
cause there exists in this country a great number of 
unoccupied places in the two careers. Ireland num- 
bers nearly 6,000,000 of inhabitants; she has room 
for 12,000,000. Precise limits cannot be assigned to 
the population of an insular country provided with 
such powerful vehicles as, a cincture of ports, great 
wealth, and improved knowledge, applied to the me- 
lioration of commerce, and of agriculture. They are 
the most potent levers which can be placed in the 
hands of man. 

England has in reality but two important interests 
upon the continent; one of which is direct, the other 
indirect; the kingdom of the Netherlands, her creation; 
and Hanover, a dependency of the reigning family. 
As for the rest, provided nothing menace the general 
equilibrium, her interest is a mere nullity. 

England will observe France and Russia narrowly; 
she will protect Portugal and Naples; she will make 
her profit of lucrative Spain; but, in other respects, 
she will restrict herself to the cultivation of ordinary 
relations with other states. Having nothing to appre- 
hend for herself, nor from herself nothing to acquire 



167 

upon the continent, she will continue indeed to influ- 
ence it; but her action will proceed from without, by 
means of her maritime forces, present every where, 
at the same time. England is to Europe in the direc- 
tion of the sea, what Russia is upon land. To balance 
her would require, what we never yet have seen, and 
what we are not very likely to see,, a complete union 
of the plans, of the intentions, and of all the naval 
forces of Europe. There is no salvation in any thing 
short of this. England knows it; nor is it Europe 
any longer that disturbs her repose; the lion is down; 
France is now nothing more than ancient France; 
strong at home, impotent against England. 

It is North America that England will fear in fu- 
ture; for it is the country where there exists most of 
the elements which render herself formidable. 

North America is a second England; descent, lan- 
guage, manners, natural bias towards commerce and 
maritime pursuits, all are English in America. 

Fable has had its rival brothers; England and the 
United States will realize the fable. Sprung from the 
same blood, swayed by the same inclinations, instead 
of uniting them, these circumstances will tend only 
to place them in perpetual opposition. Both in pur- 
suit of the same prey, the profits of the world, they 
will incessantly jostle each other in the same career, 
and conflicts will ensue; the prolongation of the con- 
test will render them irreconcileable. But the United 
States engage in it with immense advantages over 
their adversary. Their territory is boundless; their 
population can admit of no limits; England has cer- 
tain limits in both; she can conquer nothing from 
America; the latter will inevitably divest her of Ca- 



168 

iiada, of Acadia, of Newfoundland; all that England 
possesses upon the American continent is destined by 
the force of things to slip from her grasp. England 
can never send from Europe armies competent to con- 
tend with those of the United States, backed by the 
affections of the inhabitants, who, like all those of 
America, incline to detach themselves from Europe.. 

The United States will take the lead of England 
in all the commerce of the West Indies, and Southern^ 
America; and it is easy to see that this part of the 
globe must become the seat of the great commerce 
of the world. 

The distance which separates England from Ame- 
rica constitutes the strength of the latter; in Europe, 
the vicimity of England causes the mischief; she is, 
as it v/ere, tlie next door neighbour to all; but, v/ith 
America, it is requisite to lose sight of England; to 
make a long voyage; and remain very far from her 
ports, her magazines, and her arsenals. 

To put dovvii Carthage, Rome had but one city to 
destroy; but one point to occupy; but how is colossal 
America to be put down? Delenda America, is a 
bolder expression than delenda Carthago! Nature 
herself constructs this new Carthage over against 
England; it may, indeed, have its Hannibals, who, 
more fortunate than the Carthaginian hero, are very- 
sure that new Scipios can never arrive to subdue 
their country; which no longer consists in a single 
city, like Carthage, but in the half of a world; which 
submits to no such destruction; and is protected at 
once by its extent, its ships, and its milHons of inha 
bitants. 



169 



CHAPTER V. 

Comparison of the Ancient Political Order with the 

New, 

The particular characteristic of the ancient order^ 
was equilibrium between the principal powers. It 
contained means of repression against such as might 
attempt to disturb it. 

It is not to be understood, however, that a strict 
equality prevailed between these powers. Policy no 
more admits of agrarian laws between nations, than 
between individuals; but if there existed nations pos- 
sessed of great fortunes, these met with others pos- 
sessed of as great; who served, at the same time, 
for barriers against them, and as ramparts for the 
liberty of others. 

These powers presented vulnerable points, and 
others by which they might be seized. Thus, France 
and Austria, Austria and Prussia, Turkey and Russia, 
France and Spain, with respect to England, were in 
this state of permanent equilibrium, and could reci- 
procally balance each other. 

The particular characteristic of the actual order is, 
to want this equality, the safeguard of all. Two co- 
lossal powers have risen upon Europe, England, and 
Russia. They press her from two opposite sides; 
they embrace her; they b&siege her, as it were; they 



170 

compel her to regulate all her movements l?y theirs; 
they will allow her neither sleep nor repose. 

Their force is in nature, which gives them all the 
means to attack others, whilst it renders them inac- 
cessible to all attack; thus the proportional equality 
is found to be broken by the very hands of nature, 
and all guarantee destroyed. 

There existed, it is true, previously to the new or- 
der, preponderant powers, but not powers exclusively 
preponderant; whose force was so disproportioned to 
that of others, as to reduce them to a state of abso- 
lute vassalage; unable to sustain themselves without 
a continual league. 

The guarantee which existed in things is no more; 
all actual guarantee exists but in men; and therefore 
but too fragile ! A thousand causes may destroy it 
■ — An alliance of policy or of family; an aberration 
resulting from mistake, or corruption, may dispose of 
it, and abandon Europe to chains. In effect, Eu- 
rope has no longer a guarantee but in the holy alli- 
ance; for such is her deplorable state. History 
sometimes presents the picture of states that have 
acquired a very considerable preponderance by, what 
may be termed, the sudden eruption of princes en- 
dowed with extraordinary genius. 

Thus Gustavus Adolphus, Lewis XIV., Frederic, 
have given for a time to their countries an importance 
superior to the natural means of their states; but this 
splendour was only a transient meteor, for the very 
reason that it proceeded from man, and not from the 
essence of things : it disappeared with those who had 
caused it; the absence of these men of genius was 
sufficient to establish an equality, and sometimes in- 



171 

feriority \7ith regard to other states; as in the exam- 
ple of Sweden, or of Prussia. But as it respects 
Europe, things are much worse. Here the inferio- 
rity has deeper roots; they bury themselves in the 
nature of things. The question no longer turns upon 
the fortunes of a man; our business is now with this 
nature of things, against which nothing ever prevails. 
Men appear, rise, sink, change, and disappear. The 
successor often delights to move in a route directly 
opposite to that of his predecessors; but who can thus 
turn things from the course assigned them by nature? 
Gustavus perishes at the plains of Lutzen; the Swe- 
dish greatness is eclipsed at Pultawa, for this power 
was created as by the hand of man; but when power 
is cemented by the very hand of nature, what term 
can be assigned for its duration? In all political 
constructions this should be well considered; once 
erected they produce effects according to tlieir na- 
ture. If they repose on a grand basis of power, am- 
bition will desire to employ it : — for this is its gratifi- 
cation; none becomes powerful but for the purpose of 
command: and giving the means of oppression, gives 
also the desire to employ them. 

The evil of the actual order consists, therefore, in 
the erection of two powers disproportioned to the 
rest of the European force : There lies the capital 
defect of the present and future policy; a defect 
which leaves the other powers not a moment of 
security, or of genuine liberty. Thus on every occa- 
sion, all must travel to Petersburgh and London to 
take the word of command; it was more convenient 
to receive it at Paris. Europe has taken a general 
attitude of vassalage in the political order. After 



172 

having made trial of the French supremacy, she 
has now, very innocently, resigned herself to the 
chains of Russia, and of England. 

Laws of steel command Prussia, and Austria, to 
continue in the strictest union; let them look beyond 
them, and they will see that if petty interests may 
divide, an interest of the greatest possible strength 
bids them to unite; on one hand there is a few vil- 
lages more or less; on the other — existence: The 
independence of one will follow that of the other; 
what would enfeeble Prussia, would equally enfeeble 
Austria; each blow aimed at the one, will be felt as 
much by the other. Austria can now take nothing 
from any member of the Germanic body: all the 
petty princes and ecclesiastical sovereignties have 
disappeared: She could therefore, only encroach 
Upon the great states; but there would commence re- 
sistance, and combats. The same is the situation of 
Prussia; she can achieve nothing against the Nether- 
lands, nor against France; the latter of necessity would 
sustain the former. In all the zone bordering on 
Prussia, there exists not a state but what is covered 
by the Egis of the Germanic confederation. Aus- 
tria would defend Saxony : England protects Hano- 
ver in a special manner. Near home, therefore, 
Prussia can accomplish no object of ambition. She 
is a definite power, though her limits are very ill- 
chosen : She will be found to waste much time in 
attempting corrections, and in overtures for exchanges; 
but, in future she is restricted to this : not liable to 
be conquered, but under an absolute incapacity, to 
conquer. 
Every continental war Vifill resolve itself nece^sa- 



I/O 

rily into a war of alliance : for the principal weights 
are too great to be balanced otherwise than by coali- 
tions: And the dangers are too manifest, and too 
serious, not to indicate coalition as the only means of 
salvation. 

Here it is the combat of the Horatii ; we perish 
lighting one by one : we may sustain each other, and 
perhaps escape, under the same shield. The old 
grudges which, in the times of the revolution, pre- 
vented the German powers from uniting with sin- 
cerity, have gradually worn away. At that epochs 
the same men who for so many years had met upon 
the Oder and the Elbe, encountered upon the Meuse 
and the Rhine. 

Astonished at their new ties, embittered by inve- 
terate resentments, rejoicing more at the disasters of 
their auxiliaries, than at those of their enemies, they 
were found rather in presence, than alliance. No con- 
siderations of a higher order had, as yet, required of 
them the sacrifice of their prejudices, and the abjura- 
tion of their hatreds; they had not then felt the 
stings of adversity; impending dangers were not be- 
fore their eyes : but here they are visible, they are 
palpable, they appeal to all the senses. Consequently, 
the alliance of the great German powers is irrevoca- 
bly, and eternally, decreed by the bare spectacle of 
the power which has sprung up under their eyes; and 
whose weight will not delay to make itself felt. 
Under this head, the new system of the continent is 
of extreme simplicit}'-. It consists in two points; for 
each to defend what he has, and to fix a watchful 
eye upon Russia. With respect to the sea, the sys- 
tem is equally simple, one only h strong, all others 

lb 



174 

are feeble; they should therefore be united, in order 
to be the least feeble possible, and approximate to 
the force ^vhich is opposed against them. 

France, as we have already had occasion to remark, 
is the nucleus round which this maritime confedera- 
tion will always groupe, because she constitutes its 
most powerful part. The formation of alliances resem- 
bles that of animal bodies, where the heart is the first 
to partake of life, about which all the rest approaches 
to seek it. France is no longer fitted to inspire any 
with distrust. Let her situation be well considered, 
and none surely will suspect her of brooding projects 
against Spain, more than against Germany; and 
still less against Italy : and if, besides, the supports 
are considered which are always ready to fly to the 
succour of the Netherlands; it will be seen that she 
might as well dream of the conquest of Europe, and 
of England. France, therefore, can now have but 
one principal tendency, that of the sea; upon which 
she will recover all the superiority refused her by the 
continental order. A maritime confederation in the 
policy of Europe, in general, is like the German con- 
federation in that of Germany, in particular; these are, 
at present, the two elementary pivots of all political 
order. 

Several things, hence follow ; ^ 

1. That the actual system leaves less liberty than 
the preceding. 

2. That the political oxler is simplified. 

3. That no secondary power has either the means 
or the interest to encroach; as we perceive from the 
state of Sweden, that of France, of the Netherlands, 
of Austria, of Piedmont. The division of the south 



175 

of Europe will scarcely be suspected of harbouring 
tumultuary projects. Consequently, all the powers 
are found in what may be termed a state of self- 
preservation, adverse to wars; and which simplifies 
the movements of the political machine. On recol- 
lecting the principles of the continual wars, which 
have agitated Europe since that of the Spanish suc- 
cession, nothing is recognised in the actual state of 
Europe, which exposes her to the return of similar 
conflicts. There no longer is, as at tlpt time, Spa- 
nish domains to share out, nor throne of Spain to ex- 
cite the ardour of competitors. This long and cruel 
war was the effect of the dispersion, over the surface 
of Europe, of the members of the Spanish monarchy; 
nothing so encouraging to ambitious projects ; when 
each sees the means of aggrandizement, each also is 
tempted to employ them. The richness of the spoil 
therefore is what causes the duration of wars, and their 
intensity. Thus in the war of the succession, the 
stakes consisted of the Netherlands, (then Spanish) 
the Milanese, the kingdom of Naples, Sardinia and 
Sicily ; there was something for all tastes, and for all 
appetites. We shall never see another Spanish suc- 
cession! 

The first war against Maria Theresa, with that of 
1756, its consequence, are not of a nature to be re- 
newed; there is no longer an Austrian inheritance to 
be shared; no longer a Silesia to wrest from Austria, 
to defend against Austria; there is no longer a Poland 
to divide, a Bavaria to be invaded. The feeble cre- 
scent will reign peaceably within the circle traced 
about him. All the causes, therefore, of the wars of 
the eighteenth, are wanting in the present century; 



176 

the contentious matter is exhausted. The fixation and 
simplification of interests have drained, as it were, 
its source; and political projectors must submit to the 
despair of being unable to disturb the immense mass 
of interests reciprocally interwoven; which it would 
be necessary to shake at the same time, in order to 
produce a perceptible agitation. Consequently, Europe 
is devoted to a state of fixedness, and of permanent 
immobility; it may be said of her with the poet: 

Stat mole sui. 

Only the two great masses that press upon Eu 
rope, can produce any sensible shock; for they only 
have weight enough, and present dangers enough to 
excite and to justify a movement, which the mo- 
ment they are concerned, must become general; for 
every partial movement would couple imprudence, 
with inutility. 

Here another question presents itself. Is the order 
just described more compatible with the interests of 
Europe, than that we may presume to have been con- 
ceived by Napoleon? We have seen that which 
exists; let us now consider that which, we may sup- 
pose, would have existed. 

France, from the Yssel to the Alps and to the Py 
renees; the Germanic confederation of the north, from 
the Rhine to the Elbe; that of the south, from the 
Rhine to the Inn, and the mountains of Bohemia. 

Without this grand limit, which was a species of 
outwork to France, Prussia, the dutchy of Warsaw, 
Austria, and Illyria; on the three northern sides, Rus- 
sia, Denmark, Sweden. Italy, forming a single state, 
or, at most, divided into two. The Hanseatic cities 



177 

were not destined, more than Rome, to continue de- 
pendant on France. All these places had been occu- 
pied rather against England, than for France; these 
extensions of teiTitory were not of a nature to be 
durable. In making them, Napoleon conducted like 
the architect, who assembles materials on the ground- 
plot of the edifices he purposes to construct. The 
dutchy of Berg would inevitably have been melted 
into the monarchy erected in Westphalia; sooner or 
later, this arrangement must have been realized. What 
was seen to exist, proceeded, in some respects, from 
circumstances; or, perhaps, from irritations; none of 
which were of a nature to endure, but all such as 
time would have reformed. An edifice cannot be 
judged until it is completed; that in question was 
merely commenced. The architect was master of 
his ground; he felt himself bound by no precedent; 
he was accountable for his works to none but himself. 
Free to apply the faculties of his mind, as well as the 
immensity of his force, to perfecting his work, he 
would have amended until he had effaced its defects, 
and heightened its advantages. In this plan, it is true, 
the supremacy was on the side of France ; but, how- 
ever mischievous be all supremacy, this was, at least, 
less menacing, and more remediable, than that of 
Russia. 

Wars against the Russians, and their terrible auxi- 
liaries, the rapacious tribes who follow their armies, 
are incomparably more desolating than wars waged 
with the civilized nations of the west. For barbarism 
comes from the east. All this supremacy, for which 
Napoleon is so much reproached, would have come 
to an end; himself would have found the same which 



178 

nature assigns to all; then would the usual order of 
societies, that is, independence, have resumed its or- 
dinary course; whereas, in the actual state, depen- 
dance is established by the very nature of things. 
But what was found especially more European in the 
order we analyze, and which resulted from the system 
of Napoleon, consisted in the union it compelled of 
all the maritime forces of Europe in a single mass. 

Hatred, and limited views, have exposed only the 
odious part of the enterprise ii gainst Spain; they have 
emulously kept out of sight the part destined to give 
jjew life to this languishing monarchy: more durable 
relations with France, and a uniform direction towards 
maritime emancipation. Consequently, the confedera- 
tion necessary to effect it was found ready made, and 
united, as it were, in the same hand. What, in future, 
must be sought, and almost implored, was then in ac- 
tual possession; Spain, France, Holland, and all the 
shores of Italy, presented in this uniform direction a 
mass of forces which would not have been braved 
with impunity. Napoleon, to crown this confederal 
tion, gave it the alliance of the United States. 

This was a trait of genius, indicating in its author 
the vast and judicious idea that the navies of Europe, 
by themselves, are not in a condition to balance that 
of England; and that they must be supported by that 
of the United States, or succumb in every conflict 
with this formidable adversary. Napoleon would not 
have committed the inexcusable fault of resisting the 
emancipation of Southern America; in which he would 
have perceived the same principle of succour, he had 
already discerned in the maritime energies of the Uni- 
ted States. 



179 

These grand results, so formidable for England, 
certainly did not escape the penetration of the minis- 
try of that country; and, because it knew all the ex- 
tent of the effects of this system, it has pursued its 
author with so animated, and so persevering a perse- 
cution; it felt that, on pain of death, it had become re- 
quisite to triumph over the sole enemy England ever 
had, who was capable of appreciating her position, 
her vulnerable points, and the means of wounding 
her. The ministers assumed an air of sympathy for 
the fate of Europe, but they were only solicitous for 
that of England; they appeared in the attitude of ex- 
tending the hand of protection towards the oppressed, 
touched with a sense of their woes; but it was for 
themselves they invoked succours, while clamorously 
vociferating for union against the common enemy. 
Fully apprized there was no salvation for them but in 
the safety of all; that by the succour of every hand 
could only be broken the rod under which Europe 
bowed, they successfully duped her into an interest 
for the safety of England, But since their eftbrts 
have been attended by a too happy success; now 
England reigns over those she has enfranchised, there 
IS ample leisure to feel what tliis marvellous deliver- 
ance has cost; to judge what has been gained by 
changing tlie yoke; and perceive what motives dic- 
tate the resumption of the plan destroyed, so fai* as 
circumstances still admit of its execution. 



i80 



CHAPTER VL 

Spirit of the actual policy. 

The time of agitations is past. The European 
tempest is appeased : an irresistible force assigns to 
each whatever he may have rescued from its violence: 
The contented and the discontented, the rich and the 
poor, each must keep the place he occupies, and 
which the force of things assigns him. The new 
destinies of Europe chain him there. Whatever has 
been aggrandized, will continue more great; erected 
on the pedestal of necessity, and of fortune: whatever 
has dwindled and bent, must derive its consolations 
from the same sentiment of necessity, and of associa- 
tion with the common good. Become all equally 
stones of the edifice, they should remain in the place 
where the hand of the architect has placed them ; 
chained by prudence, as well as by weakness; to 
five and twenty years c^ agitations, long days of tran- 
quillity are about to succeed. 

Two things produce troubles, and prepare political 
storms. 

1. Rights and political calculations, constitute the 
material of these troubles. 

2. The private dispositions of the directors of poli- 
cy, influence their peculiar character. 

In the actual state of Europe all rights are esta- 
blished. We perceive none of the plausible pretexts 



181 

and subjects of litigation which the diplomatic art 
was employed to discover, to cultivate, and lead 
from afar to an object foreseen, and, too often, realized 
by injustice amidst the general surprise. Ancient 
diplomacy lived too much upon surprises; the effects 
of crooked calculations, which displaced in a moment 
all the bases of the system in being. Thus by tlie 
treaty of 1756, the French policy was wrested with 
violence from its old foundations, to be transplanted 
in a direction contrary to that which it had ever fol- 
lowed. And France with astonishment beheld herself 
transported in a day to the side of those against whom 
she had combated three hundred years, and in view 
of those with whom she had shared many battles. The 
partition of Poland also exhibited the union around 
a common spoil of those, who till then, had been occu- 
pied in despoiling one another. These abrupt changes, 
happening in the conduct of states, tend to shake them, 
as earthquakes shake cities placed on a violently agitat- 
ed soil. But at this day, all the elements of these com- 
motions are dissipated; they are not to be discovered 
in things, more than in men. When the division of 
power is equal between many. Conflicts are more easi- 
ly set on foot than when the number is more restrict- 
ed. Thus, in the actual state of things, two powers 
predominate. Great distances separate them ; they 
are of different natures ; they have nothing to envy, 
nor directly to take from, each other: the principal 
force of Europe is therefore in a natural state of reci- 
procal peace. 

The secondary powers may indeed be compelled to 
observe a continual defensive against these two supe- 
riors : but they have neither the means nor interest 

r r. 



1S2 

it) attack them: the great powers will prevent, or else 
arrange the differences which may arise between the 
little states, and will not allow them to issue in a dis- 
astrous eruption ; and this from a regard to their own 
security ; for it would prove impossible for them to 
avoid taking part in these debates, in the end. From 
that time the war would become general : and, under 
the actual system, nothing is easier to perceive than 
that every war in Europe, becoming necessarily a war 
of alliance, will terminate also in a general war. The 
weight of this consideration will obstinately contend 
for the preservation of peace. 

The states of Europe, plunged in debt by their 
late wars, will not for a long time be able to support 
the expenses of new conflicts. Credit would vanish 
at the first stroke of the drum, and its absence would 
comjjlete their ruin; already too far advanced. 

With the immense expenditure which all war oc- 
casions, it can no longer be made with the ordinary 
revenues of states; these are mortgaged for the regu- 
lar expenses of administration. It would be requi- 
site, therefore, to have recourse to loans; means ruin- 
ous in themselves, and never so little at disposal as 
when most wanted : for credit is no friend to war, 
and does not easily consent to become the author of 
that, which is calculated to destroy itself. The cre- 
dit of states has been established by the two things 
which seem the best adapted to prevent its birth,, 
dilapidations, and wars; the fable of Saturn has been 
realized by this singular procreation. 

Governments would therefore be reduced to the 
necessity of making war by the ways of extortion, 
requisition, and seizure; as was the case in France 



183 

after the fall of the assignats and mandats^ as all 
nations make it who have only real finances, and are 
ignorant of artificial finance; as the Turks, and the 
Spaniards. They would be compelled to seize 
things, as they were of late years to seize bodies, to 
supply the expense of the loss of men, and give them 
substitutes. The more destructive the nature of the 
War, the more necessary it became to squeeze the 
human species, to make it yield a quality equal to 
that of the troops destroyed. All states, therefore, 
equally need a long repose, to repair the losses of 
blood they have sustained, that it may return with 
abundance into the canals which it formerly filled; 
else, like bodies deprived of their ordinary refection, 
they must sink into marasmus, and languor. This, 
subject is too important, too capital, to be refused 
all the developements it presents. 

England supports the weight of a debt of twenty 
thousand millions.* In the conflict of the wants of 
states, against their resources, England is still the 
champion who supports the burden the least awk- 
wardly, and promises to sink the latest. But mean- 
while, this debt is such that it excludes all idea of 
mortgage, as of purchase; it has no vendible, or ac- 
quirable value; it has no point of comparison in his- 
tory; it is the fable of the public debts! 

The tributes of the world must be appropriated 
for its liquidation; it demands that from Canada to 
Calcutta, Europe, India, Asia, Africa, the globe in 
fine, should be submitted to the press, to yield the 
juices which feed, and fatten this blood-sucker of the 
universe. In every place, in every country, in every 

» Of francs. 



184 

climate, they toil, they t'affic, they sweat, to sustain 
the honour, that is, the credit of the treasury of Lon- 
don. Six hundred and fifty millions, of annual in- 
terest, must be deducted before the nation has a right 
to touch the fruits of its soil, or can proceed to defray 
its current expenses. The creditors of the state are 
served before the state itself, before the producer; 
peace suffers all the effects of war, and a general 
ruin, a perpetual constraint prevails every where, not 
to lose the privilege — of plunging deeper in debt. 
Severe privations must be endured, not to disgust 
new swarms of devourers; and to keep some mem- 
bers in reserve, whose apparent succulency may 
favour new calculations, and satiate new hunger! 
Suph is the whole secret of the art of public credit; 
to be faithful with a view to future necessity; to raise 
altars to the fear of want, served by the priests of 
fidelity. This management forces England every 
vear towards the abyss, of a new loan : to obtain the 
means of paying at the same time the interest of her 
debt, and all her ministerial departments : objects her 
ordinary revenue cannot completely effect. This 
conduct is not unlike that of the hopeful economist, 
who adds every year to his debt, to discharge the 
interest of his borrowings, and his family expenses ! 

The English debt annualhj absorbs three fifths of the 
revenue of Great Britain. 

France is indebted three thousand millions, or there 
about;* the annual interest of which, costs her two 
hundred millions; this single article consumes a third 
of her revenue; and if we include annuities and pen- 

* Of francs. 



185 

sioiis, half of her revenue is found to be thus appro- 
priated. 

Prussia is a borrower; this state is poor, and her 
new formation empoverishes her in many respects; 
for it compels her to keep on foot a strong army, and 
to incur heavy expenses in acquiring the points of 
support she needs. Prussia has much to do, in 
order to establish Herself firmly in her new position, 
and in front of her new neighbours; Russia and 
France. Her finances will long remain, therefore, 
in a very straitened condition; she would not be 
able to sustain war by her own means. Prussia will 
feel, still more than she has ever, the need of subsi- 
dies : She could only receive them from France or 
England, and, in abundance, from the latter only. It 
will be long before Prussia will see the treasures of 
Frederic again; these transient treasures, painfully 
amassed by forecast; — and wantonly squandered by 
prodigality : which encourage ambition, wild projects, 
false confidence; and leave a frightful void in the 
hand which lets diem escape, with sterility in the 
very places they would have fertilized; if a better di- 
rection had applied them where they would have be- 
come imperishable sources of new riches. Thus it 
happened with the treasures of Henry IV. those of 
Frederic, and of Napoleon. The first, melted in the 
hands of prodigal courtiers; Sully expired of grief at 
seeing consumed, with such facility, the fruits which 
his frugal hands had gathered; ministers lavished 
with smiles on worthless, and insatiable favourites, 
what the minister with face of denial^ had rescued 
from the avidity of mistresses. All this gold amass- 

* .^71 front negatlf; name given to Sully. 



186 

ed in the cofters of princes, though, it come there by 
torrents, is wasted by imperceptible means, without 
utility for the state, or the prince, unable to retain it. 
It has contributed to mad enterprises, and senseless 
expenses: it has inspired presumption; a taste for 
profusion; and shortly, nothing has remained but the 
fatal traces of its passage; whereas had it been spread 
over the fields, and the manufactories, it would have 
produced an imperishable, and ever increasing opu- 
lence. From what have the millions accumulated in 
the vaults of Potsdam, or thfe Thuilleries, defended 
the successors of Frederic, or the sceptre of Napoleon? 
They have all equally vanished; ruining their mas- 
ters, dazzled by the splendour of this false wealth; 
and tempted to engage in adventurous projects, by 
the aspect of means at their disposal, presenting fa- 
cility of execution. 

Austria has nothing abundant, and regular, in her 
finances, but disorder, and embarrassment : She sus- 
tains herself in the midst of this chaos; but she must 
plunge in it, without ulterior hope of rising, if to these 
causes of penury she should superadd those which 
are inseparable from war : For the high price of the 
objects which constitute the aliment of war, renders 
it very costly ; their value becomes enhanced to such 
degrees as, without great efforts, cannot be attained 
by the actors in these bloody scenes. And, the 
more to condemn war at the tribunal of humanity, it 
is found that the cheapest part of it — is always human 
blood! Doubtless we ought to bless a penury 
which produces a fruit so inestimablej as the mainte- 
nance of peace. It compels governments not to de- 
viate from the ways of peace, into which they have en- 



187 

tered. Thus it may be conjectured with confidence, 
that, for a long space of time, the European powers will 
be weaned from all propensity to war, by the difficul- 
ty itself of making it The proof of this assertion is 
seen at the present moment. The conclusion of the 
war has compelled each to cast up, and adjust his ac- 
counts. The burden which France must take on 
herself is well known. Her debt in the space of 
five years, has mounted from a sum of eighty-four 
millions of perpetual rents, to that of two hundred 
millions : to which, if we add annuities, pensions, and 
appointments of retreat, for services ancient, or mo- 
dern, real, or supposed, this expense exceeds three 
hundred millions annually; or two-fifths of the re- 
venue of France. Russia has lately been forced to 
negotiate a very considerable, and extremely bur- 
densome loan. Prussia has not been able to avoid 
the same shoal. The kingdom of the Netherlands las 
experienced a similar necessity : this country is also 
loaded with a considerable debt. Thus all the go- 
vernments of Europe have been seen, at the same 
time, exposing their ulcers upon every public 
place; there suing with importunity for the last dol- 
lar : alluring gamblers by the bait of exorbitant in- 
terest; and out-bidding each other to attract all that 
part of the precious metals, which throughout the 
continent, discovers a tendency to seek either a safer, 
or more lucrative place of deposit. In the midst of 
peace this spectacle of general distress is exhibite<^ 
what shall we behold, should war arrive, and scattei' 
its cries of alarm in the midst of all these necessities? 
The personal dispositions of sovereigns to main- 
t?.in a constant peace, have been proclaimed in th<^ 



188 

most solemn manner; these dispositions are of a na- 
ture to preserve the system established; that is, to 
continue peace. 

The concord of opinions and of intentions, on the 
part of the most powerful princes, excludes all possi- 
bility of tumult on the part of others. For what other 
powers would possess the weight requisite to shake 
this determination, and to change its direction? Since 
Europe was destined to submit to a sort of tutelage 
on the part of the great powers, it is consoling that 
the tendency of the present should be altogether paci- 
fic, and that its continuance should depend on the 
preservation of that which is; not as the means of the 
greatest good, in the abstract; for it cannot be dis- 
guised that the whole of this system is not good; but 
only as the means of repose, and stability in the allot- 
ted system. Europe no longer discusses upon what 
she has done, nor upon what she ought still to do; 
but, taking things as she finds them, she assigns this 
system as her point of departure, and regular state; 
for the preservation of which she purposes to employ 
all her efforts. Such is the statu quo for which she 
has declared her devoted affection. Thus, nearly, was 
tlie procedure after the peace of Westphalia. If 
many wars nevertheless followed it, the reason is, that 
Europe of that day, bore no resemblance to Europe 
of the present. The powers who then occupied most 
room, and figured most, appear not among the archi- 
tects of the new system; Sweden, and Spain, rank in 
the third class of the powers of the day; they shone 
in the first at the time of the treaty of Westphalia. 
England made not her appearance there; fully occu- 
pied by the storms which, for half a century, con- 



189 

vulsed her interior, she was edipsed, as it were, 
to the eyes of the continent; at present, she shares 
in its empire. Prussia of that day resembled Wur- 
temburgh of the present; Russia had still to wait 
a half century, to introduce into Europe her for- 
midable name; this name of its new master. Po- 
land then defended the approaches of Europe against 
the Turks, and against the descendants of the Scy- 
thians; it is now on her frontier that Russia has 
placed her foot, to spring upon Europe; France was 
the soul, as it were, of the great transactions conclu- 
ded at Munster; now she has been the object, and 
no longer the regulator, of the measures ordained by 
others; then she exercised a splendid protectorate in 
Germany; at present, she is the object of her umbrage 
and exclusions. But more, the arrangement cement- 
ed so painfully at Munster was only partial; it had 
reference only to a part of Europe; at present it is the 
very body of Europe which decrees for itself; and 
receives a political charter from the hands of the 
principal powers. The habitual interviews between 
the great sovereigns have co-operated to confirm this 
establishm.ent, more effectually than the ordinary rela- 
tions between their ministers could have accom- 
plished. 

The good fortune of Europe has given the most 
distinguished of these sovereigns a character which 
unites, in a high degree, the principles of modern 
civilization, with a personal elevation of sentiments 
corresponding to his rank. A distinct part in history 
seems reserved for the emperor Alexander, the second 
founder of the Russian empire, by the completion and 
consolidation of its limits; he has now only to embel- 

D d 



190 

Ii»h the interior of the frame he has tmced. Fetef 
less civilized the Russians, than rescued them from 
barbarism; he compelled them to change the manners 
of the East, and of Tartary, for those of the West, 
and of Europe; he rather made of them men dift'erent 
from Avhat they had been, than 'men altogether like 
others. The combat was then against barbarism, 
subsisting in all its horrors; it was requisite to subdue 
it. This war has been brought to a successful con- 
clusion;, and Peter came forth from the conflict victo- 
rious, dragging Scythia, chained as it were, to his 
triumphal car; and, according to the fine expression 
of Frederic, having xvroiight upon his people^ as aqua 
fortes acts upon iron! By this victory civilization has 
been introduced; it only remains to give it extension: 
and to this end the emperor Alexander labours with a 
zeal that claims the gratitude of mankind, as well as 
that of his people. To measure the extent of such 
a benefit, it is necessary to consider what will be the 
effect upon the human species of civilization propa- 
gated over vast countries, where it had never yet 
penetrated; as well as that, which, as a necessary 
consequence, will be produced upon the universe by 
the introduction of arts, of sciences, of industry, of 
agriculture, into the heart of immense countries, hi- 
therto unknown to the rest of the world 1 It will be 
the same with Russia as it has been with America; 
who, by the appearance of her smallest, and least fa- 
voured part, the United States, has already brought a 
preponderant weight into the affairs of the universe. 

Russia must be considered as a land of discovery; 
as a creation to be completed, whose perfection vvill 
be felt every where. This is sufficiently apparent by 
what the mere outline has alreadv Droduced. Scarce- 



191 

iy has an extremity of this empire entered upon civHi- 
zation, and what commerce; what social relations; 
what throngs of opulent travellers; what a new world, 
in policy, in commerce, in industry! See cities rise 
in the midst of savage regions! The most exquisite 
art has presided at their construction; they put the 
ancient cities to shame ! population springs as from 
under the earth; all becomes animated; all things 
kindle into life ! The child is initiated in arts, into 
sciences, whose existence was never even suspected 
by his father: improvement is propagated, is confirm- 
ed, and behold a country, entirely new, connected in 
all its partiS with the rest of the world, which it comes 
to enrich, and astonish with its new life! The work 
is to be extended over immense spaces, and will re- 
quire time for its entire accomplishment : but it tends 
every day towards the object; and urged with more 
activity, perseverance, and means, than hitherto has 
been possible, or perhaps customary, it will arrive at 
its perfection, with the aid of the great master, Time. 
This leads to remarking the difference between the 
sovereigns of modern times, and those of the remoter 
epochs of history : some few among them have de- 
served to see their names decorated by the most glo- 
rious titles, since they attest the gratitude of the human 
race. But how few are found, even among these, 
who have laboured to civilize the people they govern- 
ed ! I see it is true, the Roman emperors extend the 
power of their arms'over Germany, Sarmatia, Britain, 
Armenia, in fine, over all the parts of Africa, and of 
Asia, they were able to approach; but I do not see any 
of them employ themselves in the moral improve- 
ment of the people they have subdued. The Syba- 



192 

rites of Rome go to reign, indeed, over all the barbari- 
ans of the world; with great dexterity they render them 
subservient to the gratification of their own pride, or 
cupidity; but they contribute nothing to the education 
of these savage tribes ; they become enriched with 
their effects; but they enrich not them, in return, with 
better manners; with a better administrative, or intel- 
lectual direction. A few traits of good nature; a few 
of those expressions which discover a heart, whose 
luxury is benevolence, obtain for Titus the most flat- 
tering title man can receive; the delight of the human 
race. He owed it, in great part, to the weariness 
produced by the crimes of his predecessors: he gleam- 
ed a star of beneficence in that deep night of atroci- 
ties, vi'hich from the time of Tiberius had enveloped 
Rome ; the Romans astonished to find a man in their 
master, set no bounds to their grateful admiration'. 
But it is not seen that he made any effort to purify 
manners, to found institutions, to diffuse over the 
surface of the empire germes fitted to drain the source 
of the calamities, whose ravao:es he arrested Such is 
the difference of our epoch from those which have 
preceded ; a difference which proceeds from the four 
preat elements of modern civilization, vmknown to 
the ancient; the press, the great maritime commerce, 
the reciprocal intercourse of nations, and that which 
will prove more, even more powerful than all these^ 
the formation of representative governments. 

But there are besides some singular circumstances 
which furnish, as it were, . happy corollaries to the 
pacific tendency of the new system of Europe. 

There prevails among the pacificating sovereigns 
a double conformity of age, and of past fortunes; 



193 

three of them are still in the middle of their career. 
The long days which heaven, no doubt, has reserv- 
ed them, and which every consideration invites us to 
wish them, will contribute to the confirmation of their 
work. The workman who has conceived and exe- 
cuted, is better qualified to preserve, than he who only 
receives a thing ready made. The first is attached 
to his work by a greater number of motives. Be- 
sides, the frequent interviews which have taken place 
within the last five years between these princes, will 
likewise tend to the maintenance of their work. The 
more glorious, and painful it has been, the more will ' 
it be the object of their care ; and their forces in their 
extent, as in their duration, will be employed to sustain 
it. 

It is also quite remarkable that among these princes 
there are four, who, by a sudden return of fortune, 
have recovered the power which had escaped from 
their hands, or which they had reason to fear would 
be very greatly diminished. Omitting what has oc- 
curred in France, have we not seen the occupation of 
the capitals of Russia, of Prussia, and of Austria ? 
Have we not heard the echos of the sinister words; 
such a house has ceased to reign? In more places 
than one was there not good reason to fear possessing 
nothing, but what it might please the generosity of 
the conqueror to leave, or suit his convenience to re- 
store? 

England herself, though protected by the elements, 
has not felt herself always in safety behind this bar- 
rier; for her enemies sallied from her own bosom; 
and, for a morment, her floating ramparts were seen 
preparing to unite with her adversaries. What les- 



sons of moderation are inculcated by such great mis- 
fortunes; and enforced by the example of what intem- 
perance may cost by seeing him fall its victim, who 
in other times had made all bend! Nothing has ever 
passed before the eyes of men more strongly charac- 
terized. Men with extreme reluctance, when just 
escaped from the tempest, commit themselves again 
to the mercy of the storms : rescued from past disas- 
ters, secure of the present, the future only is to be 
consolidated by all the temperaments fitted to disperse 
the clouds, which have obscured the course of the 
last six lustres. The example of the principal sove- 
reigns will serve as a lesson, and a model to others; and 
their united efforts will be seen directed to the confirma- 
tionof peace. It is probable, therefore, that political 
affairs will, for a long time, be determined by arbitra- 
tions, and friendly mediations. Diplomacy is prepar- 
ing to resume permanently its ancient routine of 
negotiation, and secresy. 

The procedure was similar after the peace of 1763; 
foe then commenced a general state of pacification, 
which continued for a period of nearly thirty years, 
and is the most durable epoch of peace presented in 
modem history. 

From which time Europe threw aside her military 
habits, and ceased to delight in war. All affairs were 
adjusted by arbitration or interference; as was seen at 
Teschen, at Reichenback, and upon other occasions. 
It is, therefore, allowable to hope, that in future the 
same spirit of conciliation will preside over the coun- 
sels of Europe, and realize the consoling and solemn 
declarations they have announced to its inhabitants; 
who embrace with joy the certainty, after so many 
agitations, of being permitted at length to respire. 



195 

War is for bodies politic, what fever is for animal 
bodies. Though it be impossible to extirpate all its " 
germes, to destroy all its principles; we may at least 
prevent the return of its paroxysms; diminish their 
duration, and severity,' and allay them by palliatives, 
judiciously chosen, and skilfully applied. A language 
all of peace, and of peace eternal, may shock the no- 
ble ardour of some bold spirits, and terrify, with the 
prospect of long inactivity, men for whom repose 
comes like a palsy in the vigour of life, and con- 
demns them to a calm, so opposite to the agitations 
which constitute the food of ambition, and the war- 
rior's delight. But let those who are affected by this 
decree, remember there is a time for all things; that 
the epoch of rapid movements in the heart of polish- 
ed societies is of limited duration; and that the ho- 
nours they procure are acquired at a price too high to 
be regretted. These bloody lotteries, where these 
great prizes of glory may still be gained, are now 
only drawn in America; and those who are chained 
by repose, find themselves between two great princi- 
ples of consolation, the glory of their recollections, 
and the barriers created by necessity. But what, 
more than all, guaranties to the world a long duration 
of peace, is the direction it has universally acquiretj 
towards commerce, and the mutual intercourse be- 
tween people and people. Peace is the vehicle of 
these lucrative, and social communications; war is 
their enemy; from the moment of its eruption, all 
ties are severed. Consequently, war restricts the 
generality of nations in their dearest affections, and 
most important interests. Prior to this epoch, in 
which civilization ej^er cises so extensive an influence. 



196 

the same relations, and the same interests, did not 
exist, or were not felt; for, nations living in a state of 
reciprocal insulation, never approached each other, 
except to combat. 

But, since the social vehicles have brought them 
together, and caused them to intermingle, the face 
of things is entirely changed; and human societies 
with these new principles of existence, can no longer 
be directed as they were when found absent from the 
midst of themselves. A proof of this appeared in 
the irritation excited by the prolongation of the wars 
of Napoleon. How was he pursued by the impreca- 
tions of the inhabitants of Europe; how severely were 
felt the privations; how were seized the smallest 
glimmerings of peace; how were the regrets of all 
renewed, by the delay of this object of universal soli- 
citude. What a cry of triumph, and of joy was heard 
when the spring relaxed, or broken, permitted men 
too long separated, to meet again, and embrace. The 
long cramp which Napoleon had caused Europe to 
endure, was what most contributed to hi^ downfall, 
because it was that which most shocked the manners 
of the age; and of all the" burdens that can be impos- 
ed on men, the most oppressive is that which clashes 
with their civilization. Napoleon himself confessed 
it, when too late; by saying, at the moment of his 
fall, "I cannot re-establish myself; I have shocked 
the people of Europe;" a tardy admission for him, 
but not for those, who, having to govern the same 
people, are thus apprized of the shoal which a man, 
in other respects, of so vast a genius, was unable to 
shun. 

The domestic concerns of states will, for a long 



197 

time, absorb the attention of princes; and will turn 
towards their interior the restless, or offensive glances 
they have heretofore fixed on their neighbours; which 
provoked the storms that have commonly ended in 
wars. When the principles and routine of govern- 
ments were stationary, the attention of princes was 
left unembarrassed; the interior of their states occu- 
pied its smallest proportion. The heads of govern- 
ments were, regularly, more busied with hat passed 
among their neighbours, than at home; Lewis XIV., 
Lewis XV., Frederic, Maria Theresa, the Austrian, 
or French princes that have reigned in Spain, had 
merely to continue a movement already given, long 
established, and unresisted; but, how remote from us 
are these placid times ! Europe resembles a machine, 
which having been broken, has undergone repairs; 
and the workmen are attempting to set it again in 
motion; this is its first trial. In one place a sove- 
reignty, which has been effaced, has disappeared fof 
a long course of years, is to be consolidated; in ano- 
ther, an existence v, hich has experienced reverses, or 
interruptions, is to be confirmed; elsewhere, a new 
domination is to be made palatable; ties must be 
strengthened between the newly assembled parts of a 
state, and their interests, jarred by an unexpected 
approach, are to be reconciled. In all these cases, 
the machine inust be organized anew; and the incon- 
veniences remedied, which its action will always de- 
tect in the construction. Every where, as we see, 
there is much to be done; till each has firmly esta- 
blished himself, he must abandon all thoughts of at- 
tacking others; thus common emban-assments, are the 
source of common security. As, therefore, all the go- 

E e 



198 

vernments of Europe were more or less involved in the 
revolution, they still deeply feel its imperious effects; 
it has subjected them to restraints from which, in 
times past, they were free. It is one of the conse- 
quences of these grand convulsions, called revolu- 
tions, that they leave nothing in its place; nothing, 
far or near,, escapes their effects. Such is the actual 
picture of Europe. She resembles a ship in which, 
after a tempest, every one is employed in searching 
for his effects. 

All the governments will have the same subjects 
of attention, and those of too deep an interest to leave 
them much time for the intrigues, from which politi- 
cal tempests too often proceed. Thus, by a re-action 
as unexpected, as improbable, the longest peace ever 
enjoyed by Europe will owe its origin to the most 
extensive, and the most sanguinary war she ever ex- 
perienced. The establishment of representative go- 
vernments, will prove another powerful agent of peace 
between nations. 

Consider how few real things they have to envy 
each other; recollect the subjects of the wars which 
have so cruelly tormented them : in what intrigues, 
in what private interests, in what vile, or false combi- 
nations have originated these dilapidations of the for- 
tune, these frightful libations of the blood, of men! 

Almost all the wars of Europe have hitherto re- 
sembled those of which the East is the theatre : wars 
proceeding from the caprice of princes, whose lives 
resemble a uniform study of surprises against their 
neighbours, and of aggrandizements for themselves. 
Custom has rendered war the ordinary state of hu- 
manity; an occupation for princes, of pleasure, or of 



199 

vanity, like the chase, and other pomps of royalty: 
Tempore quo solent reges ad be/la procedere^ saith the 
scripture. All ancient history presents the same pic- 
ture; and such is the uniform colour of modern his- 
tory, till the close of the nineteenth century; for the 
war against Maria Theresa of 1740, that of 1756, 
that of Bavaria, in 1778; the partition of Poland, the 
attack upon Turkey, corjibined between Catharine, 
and Joseph; were so mahy dashing strokes copied 
after the oriental manner, which can neither be ex- 
cused, nor even interpreted, by any rule of justice, or 
of reason. 

And wherefore these sudden eruptions of ambi- 
tion, this perpetration of projects, conceived in dark- 
ness, and nursed in the shades of mystery ? What 
gave them birth, and facilitated their execution, but 
that their deliberation was secret; that perverse men, 
in the absence of all responsibility, skreened from all 
control, arranged at their leisure these sanguinary 
plans, and subscribed to these grand assassinations of 
nations, having the temerity to smile upon their pwn 
interests? The parliament of Paris, subordinate to 
the court as it was, still formed an obstacle to the 
turbulent fancies of ministers; such is the efficacy of 
the shadow even of public discussion ! How much 
greater, when instead of magistrates with powers 
not very exactly defined, unsupported by public opin- 
ion, who did not address themselves to this authority; 
at that time, not even in being; how much greater 
will be the restraint, when governments shall have 
always before their eyes an authority, flowing from 
tlie very bosom of the nation; from the purest sources 
of opinion, thus become the strongest of powers? 



200 

To obtain the means of paying for war, it would be 
requisite to commence by saying, why it is made. 
If Louvois waged war, to divert the attention of his 
master from the embelhshment of his palaces, to more 
elevated objects; if the palatinate was devoted to 
flames; if, for thirty years, an unfortunate man, for 
the tomb has closed over his name and the story of 
his woes; if he dragged his hapless existence from 
dungeon to dungeon, without accusation, without 
trial, without communication with human beings, 
if a word from his lips, plunged a dagger in his heart; 
if he was during all his life, invisible, and at the same 
time present to the eyes of all; placed between the 
services, and the poniard, of the same domestic, nou- 
rished, and menaced by the same hand; if all these 
horrors, worthy of the palaces of the East, or the 
Inferno of Dante; have existed in France at the dis- 
tance from us, of an age;(«) if 500,000 Frenchmen were 
forced from their natal soil, empoverished of the in- 
dustry, and the treasures they bore to its enemies; to 
what must all this be attributed, if not to the absence 
of the protecting institution which presides over the 
new destinies of France; and which tends to be- 
come the uniform constitution of Europe? She will 
find these institutions guarantees of peace far more 
durable than all the transactions, and associations 
formed by diplomatists; things by their nature vari- 
able as the thoughts, or the interests of their authors. 
But institutions have duration for their effect, as 
they have light for their principle. An unexampled 
concurrence of circumstances, which merit the appel- 
lation of imperious, impose, therefore, on the world 
the salutary law of a solid and durable peace. 



201 

Princes and people, men and things; all tends to it : 
all contributes to it : all invites to it : all guarantees it : 
none has the power to disturb it: and the affairs 
which present themselves in the distance, are not of 
a nature to restrict the enjoyment of this good, so 
ardently desired, and so inestimable to preserve. 

Note {a.) 

Within a few years, as a late French writer re- 
marks, the reign of Lewis XIV. has been the sub- 
ject of much attention in France. The epoch of its 
history is referred to by the writers who defend the 
dogmas of absolute powder with singular delight: it 
is the ground on which they most willingly meet the 
advocates of popular doctrines. The latter, after 
examining the field on which they are challenged to ^ 
combat, find no reason to shrink from the contest. 
The hope of triumph must animate their efforts, 
while the happiness of nations, is deemed preferable • 
to the dazzling illusions of military glory; and while 
the interests of humanity, are in higher esteem than 
the brilliant creations of imagination. At our dis- 
tance from the age of Lewis XIV. it is not easy to 
guard our thoughts from a sudden surprise of ad- 
miration. At this period, we see only the splendour 
of its monuments, and the master pieces of its genius. 
The groans of the victims of ambition, interrupt not 
the silence of ages; the tears of the oppressed water 
the earth, without leaving traces; and blood unjustly 
shed, disturbs not the quiet of the tombs! Even his- 
tory learns to flatter the power which is past : all 
speaks aloud of the grandeur of princes; while of tlie 
miseries of their people, all is silent. 



i202 

Consider Lewis XIV. in the midst of his court, 
nothing can be more magnificent than the spectacle; 
surrounded by the prodigies of art, all talents con- 
spiring to his glory, he is present at his own apotheo- 
sis. Like a deity whose volitions are laws, nature 
bows before him; forests disappear at his nod, moun- 
tains are levelled, waters are elevated; the seas ap- 
proach, and unite; the world is filled with his renown. 
But leave not this court so brilliant, and so polished; 
trust not your eyes beyond these sumptuous palaces, 
these marbles animated by a creative chisel, these 
breathing bronzes, the faithful image of courtiers. 
Enter not the straw-roofed cottages; for there dwells 
nought but servitude, and despair ! The walls of these 
palaces have been cemented, by the tears of a people; 
this groupe of bronze has devoured, the subsistence 
of an hundred families; to excavate these canals, and 
to suspend these aqueducts, whole provinces have 
been ruined ! The monarch himself, amidst these de- 
ceptive prosperities, is the victim of chagrin. For- 
tune soon teaches him that he is separated from hu- 
man destinies, by one of those fictions only, which 
evince the infirmity of our intelligence; he dies, and 
the public joy insults, and disturbs his obsequies! 
Such, in a few words, is the history of the most 
brilliant reign of absolute sovereignty! In some of the 
biographical romances of Madame de Genlis, much 
read in this country, and, in the age of Lewis XIV., 
by Voltaire, the dazzling parts of this reign only are 
presented; the foregoing portrait is a less flattered 
Mkeness. 



203 



CHAPTER VII. 

Gejieral Affairs to come. 

From the orderly state in which the affairs of Eu- 
rope are found, there is nothing perceptible in her 
bosom of a nature to disturb the peace she enjoys. 

To find her a subject of general occupation, we 
must quit her sphere, and turn our eyes towards Ame- 
rica. This country is shared in a singular mode; 
peopled by Europeans, one part has escaped from 
their domination; the other is struggling to withdraw 
from it. The part enfranchised has become strong, 
powerful, rich; it takes an active part in the affairs of 
the world, and participates in all its profits by an ever- 
increasing activity of commerce. Its example is be- 
fore the eyes of tlie parts of America still subject to 
the bonds of Europe. There rises, beyond the seas, 
as did Carthage opposite to Rome, a power which 
tends to form an American system; exclusive of all 
European influence. This system is evidently that 
of the United States. It cannot fail to become that 
also of all the states, which strive to form themselves 
throughout the extent of this country. This plan 
leads America to two things. 

1. To abstain from all participation in the affairs 
of Europe. 



204 

2. To prohibit Europe all participation in the iaf- 
fairs of America. 

This is a primary, elementary daturriy destined to 
form the basis of American policy, and to keep it se- 
parate from that of Europe. It consists in recipro- 
city of independence; and merely signifies the inten- 
tion to abstain, that others may abstain; to respect, in 
order to be respected in return. 

This species of independence is the completion of 
that already enjoyed by the United States of Ame- 
rica. 

Surely this march will not escape Europe, nor de- 
ceive her sagacity. An occasion has recently oc- 
curred which places this disposition in a strong light. 
Events have introduced what it was natural to fore- 
see. 

The Floridas^ locked in between Louisiana, and the 
original possessions of the United States, have been, 
as it were, abandoned to the latter, by one of those 
chances which have so much influence upon human 
aflairs. The possession of this country completes 
for the United States, that of all the sea-coast which 
reigns over the immense extent, comprised between 
Mexico, and Acadia, the two extremities of the Ame- 
rican possessions; but, besides, it gives them the ex- 
clusive control of the bay of Mexico; in which the 
United States will find establishments, and stations 
for their marine of the highest importance. But, 
greatly as this acquisition favours the x^merican navi- 
gation, it is equally inconvenient for that of England; 
the course of which is from the north, to the south of 
America, and towards the West Indies; which form, 
as it w^ere, its centre, England has large possessions 



205 

in the West Indies, in Canada, in Newfoundland. 
All these points must correspond together; she has, 
besides, established great communications with the 
Spanish main, opened by the revolution to all flags. 
It is, therefore, for her interest that the bay of Mexico, 
and the Floridas, should not be in the power of tlie 
United States; Avho will find in them such command- 
ing points, as she herself occupies in so many places. 
England is well pleased to possess points of this na- 
ture, but she does not care to find the like in the 
power of others. In the ajEPair of the Floridas, the 
United States have intimated their intention to de- 
cline all mediation, and all interference of Europe, in 
their differences with Spain, It is evident that this 
aversion from all participation with the European po- 
licy, is an axiom of conduct for the United States, and 
is destined to become that of all America. The en- 
franchisement of the latter, approaches every day 
nearer to its accomplishment; and the state of de- 
bility into which Spain has relapsed, removes all doubt 
as to the issue of this event. Spain, conscious of her 
inability to realize, unassisted, her projepts against 
America, knocks at the gates of all courts, to implore 
a helpful interposition. She colours her demands 
with the most specious pretexts she can imagine; dis- 
guising the enormity of her faults, the abyss of her 
calamities, the horror inspired by her transactions, 
and her opposition to the general spirit of Europe; she 
pursues with importunities whatever has power in 
Europe. However inconsiderable the interest she 
had hitherto inspired, she has succeeded to extinguish 
it completely by her late ministerial revolution; which 
has removed men that may be considered as her 

Ff 



206 

planks of safety; if she might still hope 'for safety. 
Behold her again plunged in the route of perdition, 
into which she is hurried by the prejudices, and the 
interests of certain classes, who, there as elsewhere, 
conceive that all should be governed either by them, 
or for them. 

All sort of consideration and of credit, has abandon- 
ed this power at her utmost need; reduced to her in- 
dividual resources; impotent to pursue the contest; in- 
capable of embracing the only resolution which reason 
indicates, that of acknowledging a system she can no 
longer prevent: Spain has become a source of per- 
plexity, and of impoverishment for the rest of Europe, 
The latter cannot dispense with America; and Ame- 
rica is disturbed by the prolongation of a war, 
which holds a part of the world in an equivocal state. 
America may be driven by this series of attacks to 
the adoption bf resolutions, whose repercussion Eu- 
rope will feel. It may be supposed that America, 
bursting, in the violence of her resentment, the ties of 
ordinary intercourse between nations, will interdict 
these relations at once to her enemies, and her gain- 
sayers; and only remain open to those who shall have 
favoured her. What an immense advantage for the 
latter; the English, for example, who not feeling 
bound by the forms, and regularity of proceedings 
which shackle the French, take a much greater part 
in the affairs of America, than a severe delicacy, and 
a greater reserve, have permitted to the latter. On 
the other hand, the continuance of the war between 
Spain and her colonies, occasions a scarcity of specie 
in Europe; the inevitable and foreseen effect of this 
war! A cry of distress is heard from one extremity 



207 

of Europe, to the other. At the moment the events 
of late years have increased the wants, the resources 
are incessantly diminishing : the European commerce 
is extended, and the means of liquidating its defini- 
tive balance are shortened: the war of America arrests 
the working, and the transportation of the metals. They 
dare not adventure upon seas swarming with insatiable 
enemies : it is calculated that half the Spanish mer- 
chant vessels, going from America to Spain, become 
prizes to the independent cruisers. Europe is de- 
prived, therefore, of all taken by them, as well as all 
they prevent to arrive. Accordingly, a general stran- 
gury in affairs prevails! Spain pays for war twice: first 
for her own, that which she wages : and also for that 
which is made against her: for with what her enemies 
take from her, they combat her: this state is ruinous for 
her, and irksome to the rest of Europe. Europe suf- 
fers, because Spain can neither release nor retain her 
colonies; can neither detach herself from the past, nor 
bring herself to a level with the present. Herein is 
found the real source of the penury, which is felt 
every where. It will terminate, the day in whiclf the 
affairs of America shall be arranged as they ought. 
It is probable, that as the evil increases, Europe will 
be finally induced to take up this important sub- 
ject; she will not always be free to turn it aside. 
Each day may cause her to see, more clearly, the ne- 
cessity of taking it into consideration. She would have 
done this at an earlier period, under greater advantages; 
and when she shall find herself in sight of a throng of 
republics, she will perhaps regret having delayed to 
oppose their establishment : they will form a singular 
contrast, with the mode of government most fashiona- 
l?le in Europe ! 



208 

There exists in a very different order, and as it 
were, in another sphere, an interest highly' deserving 
of the most serious attention. It arises from the rela- 
tions which the greater part of the European nations 
are obliged to cultivate with Rome. The latter is, 
perhaps without suspecting it, in the midst of a revo- 
lution enveloping her on all sides ; she knows not its 
principle; she suspects not its consequences; she pur- 
sues the routes traced by habit, in which time has, 
as it were, settled her. Meanwhile she must nego- 
tiate with all the courts, a great part of whom she has 
not known long, and who feel no very intense interest 
in her old rubrics. The subject is of vast, and pri- 
mary importance to societies: it concerns religion. 
Rome, by pursuing her habitual march, without regard 
for the spirit of the times, has brought religion to the 
verge of ruin, 1, by the extinction of episcopacy; 
2, by the contempt, and irritation, which have been 
generally produced, at seeing the interests of religion, 
sacrificed to the rules of the Roman chancery. Men 
guided by reason, and animated by truly religious 
sentiments, cannot be reconciled to an order of things 
equally at variance with both. How can religious, 
and enlightened minds be brought to believe, that 
religion must perish, waiting for the conclusion of 
treaties, for its better support; or that these treaties 
ought to be such as to constitute, states in permanent 
danger, and princes in a state of permanent inequality 
with the court of Rome; that every contest with her 
may resolve itself into a suspension of the functions 
of religion; and thus lead to the ruin of religion itself? 
The religious situation of Europe has been rendered, 
to the last degree critical, by the difficulty of transac- 
tions with Rome, 



209 

It is quite time this chaos should be reduced to 
order; and, since the relations with Rome are extend- 
ed to a number of princes, and states, heretofore stran- 
gers to that court; it becomes highly requisite to ar- 
range a uniform system of relations, and to establish 
at length in concert with her a public law; which has 
always been wanting in the social system of modern 
Europe : it should contain whatever is truly useful, 
and necessary ; whatever is applicable to the times : 
it should prune, and reject ^vhatever is superfluous ; 
whatever refers to private interests, and is contrary to 
the manners, and to the genius of the age. There is 
but one god, but one faith, but one pope, why should 
tliere not be a uniform system of religion? 



210 



CHAPTER VII. 

Declaration of the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

A German publicist has been cited as authority 
for the following assertion : " that which is clear, is 
French; that which is not clear, is German." In 
what language are the declarations of the congress 
conceived? In that of peace, as well as that of mo- 
deration; its surest guarantees. I am far from deny- 
ing them this character. But, this is not all: the 
question relates to policy; to a treaty of union; to a 
supremacy of power; therefore should be stated 
clearly. 

By the treaties of 1813, 1814, 1815, four powers 
united to put down the domination of France; to as- 
sign her limits, and to confine her within them. 
Thus also at Chaumont, they pledged themselves 
anew to remain united; stipulating the duration, and 
the expenses of their alliance. At Vienna, at Paris 
in 1815, the treaties had a fixed, and determinate ob- 
ject. They nearly resembled diplomatic acts, in their 
nature and clauses. But here the same is not per- 
ceived. 

These declarations contain nothing positiye : they 
express devout wishes; encouraging indeed for the 
general tranquillity, but destitute of the precision and 



211 

the foresight, which generally are found in acts of 
this solemn character. (1) The four first, add a fifth 
rhember to the quadruple alliance, existing since 
1813. The French plenipotentiary is invited to a 
seat, among those who had heretofore decided, upon 
the fate of his country; he enters, at length, the senate 
which had so often sentenced it. He comes there 
to receive the tribute of homage which the sovereigns 
are so fond of paying, to the wisdom of the king, and 
the effects of constitutional government. It is con- 
soling toobserve that this word contains nothing ter- 
rific for princes, still enfranchised from the restraints 
of the constitutional system within their states. 
What is so good for others, would not be an evil with 
them. But after this first cause of satisfaction, some 
points present themselves less easy to explain. 

What is this new tribunal which erects itself over 
Europe? Is it an amphictionic tribunal, like that 
which existed among a celebrated people of antiquity? 
What is the principle of its authority? Where will 
be its limit? Who will put it in motion? To whom 
will it appertain to do it? Upon what could it act, 
except upon itself? For it is Europe; all the rest is 
nothing, when compared with these five powers. If 
differences happen between them, how will the divid- 
ed, remain united, to restore themselves to concord; 
and how without concord, can they remain united? 
All this, it is perceived, wants precision, and perspi- 
cuity; the two elements of diplomatic language. 

The French has been mad^ the language of trea- 
ties, and of mathematics, by reason of its perspicuity: 
its direct construction excludes the ambiguities, so 
frequent in languages which permit inversions, and 
fixes with precision the sense it would indicate. 



212 

But, the most important article of these declara- 
tions, that which would have excited the greatest 
umbrage, is precisely that not found in them, and 
which for this reason, we are tempted to seek there. 
It is that which relates to the possible interfer- 
ence of powers, in the internal commotions of a coun- 
try. How far will these commotions give the right 
to interfere? will a part have the right to authorize in- 
terference? It could not be applied equally to all; for 
England, certainly, would not be seen to invoke the 
interposition of foreigners; as would be done else- 
where. The condition, therefore, is not equal be- 
tween the contracting parties. The Russians, and 
the Prussians, would not arrive at London, as at 
Paris. If tlie permanence of this union may affect 
the independence of sovereigns, in the political order; 
its ambiguity may, in the civil order, affect also the 
independence of nations. Each people has a right to 
regulate its internal affairs, independently of all others. 
If it were otherwise, none would be independent but 
the strongest: for he only would be able to interdict 
the knowledge of his own affairs. If a great change 
had just taken place in the government of a country, 
would it make an opening for interference? Must a 
people be compelled to continue attached to things, 
or even to persons, with whom it shall have pro- 
nounced its incompatibility? Here, it is perceived, 
are more questions than one upon a subject which, at 
the first view, appeared very simple. It is also true, 
that public opinion believes it has discovered, behind 
tlie veils which have been drawn over it, a secret 
league of princes against nations. It has been the 
more confirmed in this belief, because many phrases 



213 

of these declarations are cited from the holy alliance; 
an act which, at its publication, was considered as the 
apocalypse of diplomacy. The English ministry re- 
fused to adopt it; fearing the vigilance inherent to a 
representative government. The same obstacle pre- 
vented it from taking root in France, where the pub- 
lic favour would not have attended its reception. 
It will be well to observe how the English ministry 
will reply to the interrogatories, which will doubtless 
be made respecting these acts, and relative to their 
connexion with the holy alliance. 

We must wait for this information from England, 
condemned, as we are by the charter itself, to endure 
all the effects of treaties, without being admitted to 
discuss their clauses. 

It is singular that when the legislative body con- 
trols the most trivial duty upon salt, or tobacco, its 
jurisdiction should not embrace objects, which may 
affect the very existence of the nation. 

The present observations are not meant to dimin- 
ish the sentiments of gratitude, and confidence these 
declarations are calculated to inspire. 

Deplorable would be our situation, if they did not 
exist; for since Europe is found to be destitute of a 
real equilibrium, it is fortunate that we discover in 
men, what is wanting in things: and since peace can 
no longer proceed but from the former, we must 
learn to content ourselves with the holy alliance, for 
all guarantee; and in fact it would be a most holy al- 
liance, which should guaranty to Europe long days 
of peace, morality, and moderation! 

In the general tone of diplomatic acts there seems 
a tendency to Mysticism; which in policy produces 

G g 



214 

the same eft'ect as Ossianism^ in literature ; in both the 
style is false; for neither behind the clouds, should be 
placed the scene of the world; nor above the clouds, 
should its theatre, and its actors, be established. The 
perspective is too distant, from the eye of the specta- 
tor, to distinguish with assurance the nature of ob- 
jects ; the basis too shadowy, and shifting to inspire 
confidence; the great interests of nations are not to be 
negotiated witli phantoms; poHcy loves solid bodies, 
and leaves to Ixion, deceived in the object of his ar- 
dours, to embrace a Cloud! 

(1) 

Extract from the Protocol of the Congress ofAix-la- 
Chapelle. 

The ministers of Austria, of France, of Great Bri- 
tain, of Prussia, and of Russia, after the exchange of 
the ratifications of the convention signed the 9th of 
October, 1818, relative to the evacuation of the French 
territory by foreign troops; and after having ad- 
dressed to each other the notes annexed in copy, have 
met together in conference to take into consideration 
the relations which in the existing state of things 
ought to be established between France, and the co- 
subscribing powers to the Treaty of Peace of 28th of 
November 1815; relations which, while they secure 
to France the place which appertains to her in the 
system of Europe, will bind her strictly to the pacific, 
and benevolent views which are shared by all the so- 
vereigns; and thus consolidate the general tranquillity. 

After having maturely weighed the salutary prin- 
ciples of the grand interests, which constitute the 
order of things established in Europe under the aus- 



215 

pices of divine providence, by means of the Treaty of 
Paris of 30th of May, 1814, the recess Vienna, 
and the Treaty of Peace of the year 181r5, the Courts 
subscribing the present act, have unanimously ac- 
knowledged, and declare in consequence, that they 
are firmly decided not to depart, either in their mu- 
tual relations, or in those which connect them with 
other states, from the intimate union, which has pre- 
sided hitherto over their common relations and inter- 
ests : a union become more strong and indissoluble 
by the ties o^ christian fraternity, which the sovereigns 
have mutually formed. That this union, so much 
more real and durable as it depends on no insulated 
interest, on no momentary combination, can have no 
other object but the maintenance of general peace, 
founded on a religious respect for engagements con- 
signed in treaties, and for the totality of the rights 
derived from them : that France, associated to the 
other powers by the restoration of monarchical, legi- 
timate and constitutional power, engages to concur 
henceforth in the maintenance, and confirmation of a 
system which has given peace to Europe, and which 
alone can assure its duration. That if, better to attain 
the above expressed object, the powers who have 
concurred in the present act, shall judge it necessary 
to establish particular Conventions, whether between 
the august Sovereigns or between their respective 
ministers, and plenipotentiaries, to treat in common 
of their own interests so far as they relate to the ob- 
ject of their present deliberations, the epoch, and the 
place of these Conventions, shall each time be pre- 
viou'sly appointed by means of diplomatic communi- 
cations; and that in case these Conventions shall have 



216 

for their object affairs especially connected with the 
interests of other states of Europe, they shall not take 
place till aftei? a formal invitation addressed to those 
of these states whom the said affairs shall concern, and 
with the express reserve of their rights to participate 
in them directly, or by their plenipotentiaries : That 
the resolutions consigned to the present act shall be 
conveyed to the knowledge of all the European courts 
by the subjoined declaration; which shall be considered 
as sanctioned by the protocol, and making part of it. 

DECLARATION. 

At the epoch when the pacification of Europe is 
completed, by the resolution to withdraw the foreign 
troops from the French territory; and when the mea- 
sures of precaution cease, which deplorable events 
had rendered necessary : the ministers and plenipo- 
tentiaries of their majesties the emperor of Austria, 
the king of France, the king of Great Britain, the king 
of Prussia, and the emperor of all the Russias, are 
commanded by their sovereigns to bring to the know- 
ledge of all the courts of Europe, the results of their 
convention at Aix-la-Chapelle; and to this end, to 
make the following declaration : 

The convention of the 9th of October, 1818, which 
has definitively regulated the execution of the engage- 
ments consigned in the treaty of peace of 20th No- 
vember, 1815, is considered by the sovereigns who 
have concurred in it as the accomplishment of the 
work of peace, and as the completion of the political 
system destined to ensure its solidity. 

The intimate union established between tlie-Mo- 
narchs associated to this system, by their principles, n® 



217 

less than by the interests of their people, offers to 
Europe the most sacred pledge of future tranquillity. 

The object of this union is as simple, as it is great, 
and salutary; it tends to no new political combination, 
to no change in the relations sanctioned by existing 
treaties. Calm, and constant in its action, it has only 
for its object, the maintenance of peace, and the gua- 
rantee of the transactions by which it has been found- 
ed, and consolidated. 

The sovereigns in forming this august union, have 
considered as its fundamental basis, their invariable 
resolution never to depart between themselves, nor in 
their relation with other states, from the strictest ob- 
servation of the Laws of Nations; principles which in 
their application to a state of permanent peace, can 
alone effectually guarantee the independence of each 
government, and the stability of the general associa- 
tion; faithful to these principles, the sovereigns will 
maintain them equally in the conventions, in which 
they shall personally act, or which shall take place 
between their ministers; whether they may have for 
their object to discuss in common their own interests, 
or whether they shall refer to questions, in which 
other governments shall have formally claimed their 
intervention. The same spirit which will direct their 
counsels, and which will reign in their diplomatic 
communications will preside also at these conventions, 
and the repose of the world will be constandy their 
motive and their aim. 

In these sentiments the sovereigns have consum- 
mated the work to which they were called. They 
formally acknowledge that their duties towards God. 
and towards the people they govern, prescribe to 



218 

them to give the worlds as much as in them is^ the 
example of Justice, concord, and moderation; happy 
in bei?2g able, henceforth, to consecrate all their efforts 
to the protection of the arts of peace; to increasing 
the internal prosperity of their states, and awakening 
those sentiments of religion, and morality, the influ- 
ence of xvhich has been weakened but too much by the 
misery of the times. 



219 



CHAPTER IX. 

Spirit of the People of Europe. 

It is altogether constitutional, — that is to say*, di- 
rected towards the establishment of solid institutions, 
and the extinction of absolute and arbitrary govern- 
ment; a thing which appears insupportable to the peo- 
ple of modern times; because it is incompatible with 
the degree of civilization to which they have arrived. 
Such is the general object towards which this spirit 
tends. The modifications of this government may be 
numberless; but the object is determinate, — that of 
being governed regularly; such is the general will. 
And this explains the facility with which nations ac- 
cept of constitutions, which have not been submitted 
for their deliberation; for, even without finding them 
entirely in conformity with principles, we see they ac- 
cept them without hesitation, and without discussing 
the question of authority. And this because they 
perceive in them a passage from a decrepid, and de- 
tested system, to an order of things fondly desired, and 
permanent in principle. Thus a first. wish is accom- 
plished; and patience is supported by hope. These 
constitutions, oifspring of necessity, are a species of 
bridge, thrown over the abyss which separates the 
past from the future; they facilitate the passage from 
one bank to the other. The Past, like an imperious 
master, ever tends to dispossess the Present; its com- 



220 

bat is against Time; the latter will prevail, and finally 
perfect what in this first epoch can merely be sketch- 
ed. It will continue to act as when the kings of a 
former epoch began to enfranchise the boroughs; on 
the faint gleamings of the light which began to dawn. 
Such was the first effect of light; as it has increased,. 
others have been produced, which have gradually 
caused the enfranchisement of modern societies. The 
latter would be constitutional, as the boroughs aspired 
to be enfranchised. The state of the two epochs 
produced the exigencies which, in the two circum- 
stances, constituted the spirit of the age; for the spi- 
rit of a time is but the expression of its wants, and the 
measure of its frees. It wills what it knows, and 
"what it can. 

When the boroughs were enfranchised, they dis- * 
puted neither the principles, nor the accidents of their 
liberation; they eagerly accepted its declaration, and 
entered upon its possession. By such means was 
gradually formed the assemblage of rights, and privi- 
leges, which constituted the general liberation. A 
captive escaped from long imprisonment, Europe at 
this day pursues a similar course. She has done with 
the arbitrary, absolute and despotic system; always 
contrary to her interests, and now contrary, also, to 
her knowledge. Discredited in the minds of all, this 
system must of necessity fall. Princes, aware of the 
existence of these dispositions, accommodate their 
conduct to this general movement of opinion, even 
when it opposes them; so imperious is its manifesta- 
tion. If they make a sacrifice to the necessity of 
granting constitutions; the people, also, sacrifice to 
the need of having, the right of discussing them; they 



229 

time. Time supported her, while there existed any cor- 
respondence between them: this support having been 
withdrawn, she has fallen, as fruit drops from the tree, 
when the sap retires from it; no longer recommended 
by the circumstances, which had given her birth, and 
importance, she now stalks a mere phantom. She 
owed existence to comparitive superiority; she bore 
the burdens of society; she occupied the fields and 
the surface of the territory; at present, she is equalled, 
or surpassed in all these points; she no longer sup- 
ports singly the burdens of the state; far from this, 
she feels but the smallest part of them; of the domain 
of the soil, she retains but a limited portion; that of 
industry, she has lost entirely; talents are riot less 
common in other ranks, than in her own: what is there 
left then, of the attributes on which depended her 
power? Such is not the condition of thrones. Their 
beneficent attributes have remained, the pledges of 
their immortality; better known, more felt, better ap- 
preciated, they will become every day more dear to 
the people of Europe; who desire only the retrench- 
ment of what is superfluous, and therefore prejudicial, 
even by its inutility. 

Thrones, therefore, repose always upon the same 
basis — the utility of nations; but aristocracy, useful 
to herself only, and burdensome to others, now rests 
upon nothing; or rather, deprived of her ancient foun- 
dations, she has no true support. Finding herself 
destitute of roots in the nature of things, or in the 
minds of men, she solicits the support of thrones, 
and invokes them in the name of common dangers. 
But let governments not be deceived; Aristocracy is 
an emigrant from the social system, who, feeling her- 

I i 



230 

self separated from the soil which had sustained her, 
goes in search of allies; to whom she can bring no 
succour, but in requital, may involve them in many 
dangers; for, let it not be doubted, her allies will in- 
fallibly share in the odium which attends her; and 
even in case of victory, they would find in her impe- 
rious masters, who would command them to follow 
her, as she did the unfortunate Lewis XVI.; as she 
has also done since the 5th of September: for aristo- 
cracy is imperious, even in her respects. She spoke, 
by the mouth of the nobles of Arragon, when they 
dictated to their king, the conditions of their obedi- 
ence; and annexed to the crown the haughty formula, 
si non, non. It was she also, who, by the organ of the 
Magnates^ menaced, as much almost as consecrated, 
the sovereign of Hungary; it was she who rent in 
pieces, shared out, and sold Poland: it was she who 
answered by the voice of the noble Pole, urged to 
arrest the Turks in their pursuit of Sobieski, " after 
this king ceases, we will make another ^^ 

Though aristocracy be not always a good servant, 
she is always, at least, a very bad master. Reduced in 
number, in great states, it is no more than a drop of 
water in the ocean, a grain of sand upon its shores.f 

There no longer exists, therefore, any real aristo- 
cracy, except that which results from the constitu- 
tional system. The latter, reason adopts; the nation 
has embraced; not for the sake of aristocracy itself, 

* See the history of king Sobieski, by the Abbe Co3''er. 

■\ Kefore the revolution, the number of noble families in France did not 
exceed 17,500. Reckoning five individuals to a family, there might have been 
about 90,000 nobles. The disasters of the revolution must have reduced the ra 
to less than 40,000. It is doubtful whether there are 500 nobles to a depart- 
ment ; a great manv of them number fewer than an hundred. 



231 

but for her own; finding it a necessary machinery in 
her new pohtical organization, and that the mainte- 
nance of this machinery is requisite for her govern- 
ment. 

The new, is a legal substitute to the personal, and 
feudal aristocracy; which the nation had supported, 
in like manner, so long as it sustained the burdens of 
the state. To the support of these social burdens 
her obedience refers; to the same object, in a new 
form, she directs her affections. But how does this 
substitution of one order to another, lead, as some pre- 
tend, to social disorder? Is the exchange of a worn-' 
out institution, for institutions full of life, and energy, 
the destruction of all institutions? Should w^ assert, 
that even thrones themselves, must submit to modifi- 
cations; institutions which have sprung from the bo- 
som of societies, can they not follow their progress, 
and participate in their improvements? Has heaven 
created for thrones, as for humanity, a common type 
from which it would be impossible to derogate, with- 
out subverting the laws of nature ? 

Thrones, like all other human institutions, are va- 
riable in their signification, and application, according 
to the times, and to the countries in which they exist. 
But what have thrones to lose in becoming identified 
with societies, instead of reposing upon the clouds? 
What have they to lose by acquiring the signification 
of guarantees, of social stability; instead of purport- 
ing j&^fl!nto.smfi5^orzfl!. Iris, and other chimeras? In what 
has the house of Hanover been a loser, by acknow- 
ledging in its throne a signification, different from that 
given by the house of Stuart, to the. throne which sunk 
under it? 



232 

Attributes of beneficence will always prove a surer 
guarantee, than the creations of prejudice, and imagi- 
nation; and, for a thing to have any sense, its import 
must be general, and understood by all. Aristocracy 
has required equality in submission; want of reflec- 
tion has made submission, to consist in abjection; the 
constitutional system, coming to establish all things 
anew, has replaced respect in knowledge, and in gra- 
titude. 

By these titles, it teaches men to love thrones; and 
thrones to obtain these claims to their aifection. Such, 
at the present day, is the spirit of the people of Eu- 
rope; their spirit is formed; it is constitutional, in the 
sense we have just explained. A thousand things 
may, in private, divert men from an object; nothing 
can divert nations from theirs; to oppose them, but 
makes them desire it the more; to refuse their desires, 
but adds to their violence; and governments can do 
nothing better, than to yield with discretion, and a 
good grace, whatever is demanded with unanimity. 

Extinguished at once, every where; or else every 
where established, such, in the present state of the 
world, must be the fate of the constitutional system; 
but, to arrive at this extinction, it will be requisite to 
commence by another; and the former will ever hap- 
pen the last; the extinction of nations themselves. 

Note [b). 

The revolution of France, according to Madame 
de Stael, is one of the great epochs of social order; 
those who view it as an accidental event, blind to the 
past, and to the future, mistake the actors for the 
drama; and impute to the agency of men, who have 



233 

figured but a moment on tlie stage, that which ages 
had been preparing. 

Many are incapable of seeing a more remote cause 
for the events of the day, than the chances of the fore- 
going evening. 

If, say they, such a partial movement had been 
prevented, nothing of what has taken place would 
have happened. By repairing the disorder of the 
finances, the convocation of the states general might 
have been rendered superfluous. By firing on the 
multitude, who crowded tumultuously around the 
Bastille, the insurrection might have been prevented. 
If the votes of the commons had been rejected, the 
constituent assembly would not have been factious; 
and if the constituent assembly had been dissolved, 
the explosion of the revolution would never have ta- 
ken place. 

What blindness ! not to see, that disorder in the 
finances was not a cause, but an effect; that the same 
form of government which had produced this deficit, 
would soon have created another; because dilapida- 
tion is the inseperable concomitant of an arbitrary 
system; that the destruction of the Bastille was not a 
sudden caprice of the inhabitants of Paris; that if 
preserved to-day, it wowld have been menaced to- 
morrow; for, when the hatred of vexations have 
created universal disgust, it is not by protecting vexa- 
tions with cannon, but removing them, that a durable 
tranquillity is re-established; that the admission of the 
commons merely added a few more organs for the 
expression of an opinion, which, deprived of these 
organs, would have created others, still more formi- 
dable; that, by dissolving the constituent assembly, 



234 

they could not have extinguished that thirst for hber- 
ty which agitated every mind, and fired every breast; 
that the power of the unprivileged class would have 
remained, and must have received, or would have 
taken, satisfaction; that the true authors of the revo- 
lution were not those who, being its. instruments, ap- 
peared its leaders. The true authors of the revolution 
were the Cardinal de Richelieu, and his tyranny, his 
sanguinary commissions, and his cruelty; Mazarin 
and his artifices, which rendered contemptible, the 
authority his predecessor had made odious; Lewis 
XIV., his ruinous magnificence, his useless wars, his 
persecutions, and dragonades. The true authors of the 
revolution were absolute power, despotic ministers, 
insolent nobles, greedy favourites! 



235 



CHAPTER X. 

Armies. — Public Debts. 

We have now to treat of two great burdens, 
or, rather, of two great ulcers tliat afflict Europe ; 
scourges unknown to antiquity; Permanent Armies, 
and Public Debts, as permanent as the first. Europe, 
in peace as in war, is a camp; in peace, also, as in 
war, she tends to ruin; in peace as in war, there are 
soldiers every where. There is no difference between 
war, and peace, but that of dwelling in barracks, or 
under tents; their effect is the same, to engulph states, 
in the one case as in the other! 

Descended from the nations of the North, and of 
Germany, warlike savages, always under arms, sa- 
crificing upon altars streaming with blood, seated in 
council on piles of arms, referring all questions to the 
decision of force, despising all civil occupations, the 
Europeans have inherited the military habits of their 
ancestors; as well as their political and social institu- 
tions. From them the two great scourges of Europe 
have been transmitted; the continual bearing of arms, 
and Feitdalism; the latter was the natural support of 
the former. 

To have armed men in its constant service, it was 
requisite to have vassals; it was necessary that three- 



236 

fourths of the population should be born, and live con- 
scripts, to furnish the remaining fourth with means to 
sustain its warlike habits. 

The earth must annually produce a crop(c) of sol- 
diers, as of its other fruits ; and man was born to be 
harvested by the sword, as wheat by the sickle. By 
means of this native, and always certain reproduction 
of recruits, war might become permanent between 
city and city, village and village; and each castle 
might always pour forth its armed, and destructive 
swarms upon the surrounding country. All honour 
was found, accordingly, on the side of arms; all no- 
bility was of the sword; all science was despised; all 
professions, not military, were held in little esteem ; 
the sword curbed all, commanded all, judged all, in 
fine, it was all ; without the sword, at that period, 
no rank in the social order. There were no regular 
armies ; for nations themselves were armies, and were 
always armed. The division of sovereignty was an 
obstacle to the establishment of permanent armies; 
armed tribes combated other armed tribes, and thus 
generalized the state of war. What ages of pain, and 
of conflict preceded the union of this assemblage of 
weapons in the single hand of the prince ; before this 
terrible right of the sword, which had appertained to 
all, was restricted to the sovereign alone! This aimed 
a mortal blow at Feudalism; deprived of arms, she 
resembled a city whose n imparts are destroyed. 
Carthage after yielding to Rome her ships, her ele- 
phants, her engines of war, was not more completely 
subdued, than Feudalism was subjected to the throne, 
her ancient rival, when arsenals became its exclusive 
possession : an exclusive arsenal would be the master 



237 

of the world ! Feudalism, the smaller sovereign, fell, 
from that period, at the feet of the great sovereignty; 
that exercised by kings in the name, and for the in- 
terests of nations. These, being entrusted with the 
defence of the state, which always has, or which al- 
ways may have enemies; were bound by this consi- 
deration, to keep on foot corps of permanent troops. 
Their origin, and gradual increase may be traced 
from the reign of Charles VII, the epoch of their es- 
tablishment down to our own times: but how unlike 
have they become to their original! They resemble 
each other in one point only; troops caused the esta- 
blishment of permanent taxes, as they have never 
ceased to require their continuance. The one is a 
necessary consequence of the other. Permanent Ar- 
mies and Finance have sprung from one stock, and 
form two trees proper to blast with sterility all places 
their destructive shade may approach: and in creating 
finance, the permanence of armies has more than ef- 
faced the benefit resulting from the destruction of 
Feudalism. 

When a state supports the number of defenders 
required by its exigencies, it then merely applies to 
this part of its preservation, the means it employs also 
for the maintenance of all other parts of its existence. 
The evil is, therefore, in excess; but there is always 
excess whenever there is inutility, danger, and op- 
pression. There is inutility, when the power to imi- 
tate exists every where You raise vast armies, but 
there are men elsewhere ; and as many of them will 
be armed, as you have given the example. From 
Xerxes, down to Napoleon, great armies have been 
seen to meet their equivalents, prepared to oppose 

Kk 



238 

tlieni. Are these great armies more rapid in their 
motions than small? Assuredly not : little machines 
are more moveable than great, and play with more 
facility. Are they more decisive ? Not any. Twenty- 
two thousand men give Cesar, at Pharsalia, the em- 
pire of the world; against forty-four thousand who 
served Pompay. Perhaps great armies, by prolong- 
ing the contest, might have given it to neither. Alex- 
ander triumphs over Asia, with thirty-three thousand 
men; the clouds of combatants assembled by Darius,, 
are unable to defend his throne. The Macedonian 
hero achieves, with a handful of men, what the Ta- 
merlanes, the Gengiskans, must drag in their train 
whole nations to effect. Ten thousand men in the 
plains of Ivry, deckle between Henry IV. and the 
Catholic league. Cromwell commanded less than 
thirty thousand men, when he remained the master of 
England. Conde at Rocroy, saved France and hum- 
bled Spain, with fewer than twenty thousand comba- 
tants; and Turenne acknowledged that he began to 
feel embarrassed when he had more than thirty thou- 
sand men to command. The number of armies is 
not therefore a force ; is not an absolute, but only a 
relative power. If they can be opposed by others as 
numerous, what v/ill their augmentation have pro- 
duced, except the ruin of both parties? Then the 
victory may be claimed by the last half crown; and 
such a triumph flatters courage, as little as the under- 
standing! Plenry IV. never maintained a permanent 
force of more than twenty thousand men ; he w^as res- 
pected in Europe, and was about giving her a new 
political code. Sully was grand master of an artillery,, 
consisting of fewer pieces than are required for a di- 
vision of modern armies.. Lewis XIII, during his 



239 

wars, which were of long continuance, kept up a force 
of eighty thousand men; it is true also that his finances 
felt it severely; when, lo! at the end of thirty years, 
Lewis XIV. presents to Europe, panic struck, armies 
of four to five hundred thousand men, drawn from 
a population not exceeding eighteen millions of in- 
habitants; an enormous burden, and more oppressive 
than that imposed by Napoleon for his army of eight 
hundred thousand men; since the latter has numbered 
forty-two millions of subjects. Lewis XV, in the 
war of 1740, and of 1756, kept on foot armies of four 
hundred thousand men. And vi^hat was its result at 
the two epochs ? a proportionate increase in the forces 
of the enemies; impoverishment in the population; 
ruin in the finances ; the peace of Utrecht, and the 
peace of 1763, both dictated by these enemies. Un- 
der Lewis XIV, towards the close of the war of the 
Spanish succession, women became the cultivators 
of the earth; under Lewis XV, in the senseless war 
of 1756, the grave Rollin, rector of the university, 
was carried off by one of those brisk movements 
which substitute the seizure of men, to voluntary 
enlistments; and which recruit armies, as in H 1- 
land it was customary to provide troops for Batavie. 
At that time also Prussia vt^as seen to become a bar- 
rack ; Austria was not slow in presenting a similar 
metamorphosis; and Russia, answering the signal, 
hailed her undisciplined hbrdes, bidding them form 
in battalions, rivals to those of Europe, in readiness 
to become their masters. Napoleon had founded 
his power on a basis of bayonets, and spears; a hurri- 
cane of bayonets from the North has subverted it, with 
the throne it supported. 



Mi) 

What is the use, therefore, of these gigantic ar- 
mies which crush states, but defend them from no- 
thing? What is their use? I reply without hesita- 
tion, to render princes enterprising; and the people 
slaves. But I claim too much; for these are the 
words of Frederic, not mine. When this prince, in 
one of his works, a monument of his ability to wield 
the pen as well as the sword, details the motives 
which induced him at first to declare against Maria 
Theresa; after a studied enumeration of many pre- 
texts which we are at no loss to appreciate, he con- 
cludes with the avowal that the aspect of his fine ar- 
my decided him; and that he had a mind to play on 
the instrument, which he found in such excellent tune! 
Thus he was lanched into the career of conquest, by 
the possession of means to conquer. Thus at the 
dawn of the revolution, the storm was clearly seen 
gathering which soon burst upon Europe, by the ar- 
mament of the entire nation. 

Ignorant of the human heart, you give means, and 
you trust that their aspect will not excite a desire to 
employ them; you add arms to arms, for armies are 
nothing else, and you live in confidence that they 
will remain always folded: that a thousand passions, 
a thousand interests, a thousand irritations, will not 
put them in movement! Wait a moment, and you 
will see whethet^ou can arrest them. You are un- 
apprized then what motives of pride, of confidence, 
of ambition, result from the possession of arms: 
place a sword in the jhands of any man, and you will 
see if he shall believe it is always to be kept in the 
scabbard. How often have kings been forced to 
yield to the wishes of an army, weary of a long petice; 



241 

as generals are sometimes compelled to lead into 
battle their imprudent soldiers, inflamed by the pre- 
sence of the enemy ! 

In 1806, Prussia owed her disasters to the ascen- 
dency over the government acquired by the army;- 
war proceeded from the barracks of the life guards 
and dragoons; and not, in its natural order, from the 
cabinet. Likewise in France, the armed multitude 
in 1792, had declared war a long time before the 
legislative assembly; which merely served it as a 
herald of arms. Great armies therefore are not re- 
prehensible for their inutility only; they are besides 
the efficient principle of wars, by the excitement they 
bring with them: but, which is still worse, what en- 
couragement do they not present to despotism? Of 
what must he not feel himself capable who disposes 
of such a force? how its aspect must speak to the 
eyes, and appeal to the heart of a young prince, im- 
patient of the control of laws! Armies are therefore, 
in the very nature, in the essence, of despotism, 
I. By the effective power they place in the hands of 
the prince: II. By the nature of the military profes- 
sion. 

It is all obedience to the chief. To muTtiply the 
bonds of this passive order, is to withdraw as many 
supports from the civil order; and to furnish so many 
means to prevail against it. The soldier, a machine 
under arms, little enlightened by his education, is not 
the judge of the orders he receives; he has more 
learnt to obey, than to question; he may be led to- 
wards an object he knows not; and thus become the 
destroyer, of what he should be the preserver. In 
civil discords, he cannot but be a very ill judge of 



^ 242 

the controversy; he sees the ensign, he has sworn 
to it; honour chains him to it, he follows it, the 
blind instrument, and the victim in turn of the hand 
that guides it. All probabilities, as well as all his 
apparent and perceptible duties incline him to side 
with his chiefs; and these have more military interests, 
than civil affections; it is the common position of the 
warrior. The soldier absorbs the citizen. How 
many places are there in which the army is educated, 
and organized with patriotism enough to defend the 
country, and the laws against an usurper; or an exten- 
der of his power? On the contrary, have not armies, 
from Cassar down to our own times, decided upon 
all civil controversies, and cut all the Gordian knots 
of policy? A thousand are known to have taken 
side wuth their chiefs, against their country; one only 
is known, the English army in 1688, which has taken 
the side of country, against its chiefs. In Sweden, 
Gustavus subverts the constitution with a few regi- 
ments. In England, Cromwell dissolves with his 
red brethren the formidable body which had subver- 
ted the throne; he closes against it the gates of par- 
liament; he orders away, as a vile gewgaw, the mace 
which had shattered the sceptre. 

In Russia, Catharine receives the throne, from the 
hands of those who, twelve hours before, had been 
her husband's guards! 

May heaven ever avert from Engla7id the divisions 
which might lead the prince to employ the interference 
of the army! Perhaps this would offer a last, and 
irreparable example of their dangers; perhaps it would 
prove Madame de Stael to have been flagantly mis- 
taken in the confidence she reposes in the patriotism, 



243 

and intelligence of an army composed of the des- 
cendants of the oldest, the most fervent, and the most 
enlightened, votaries of liberty: perhaps England 
would be compelled to bid a last, and an eternal adieu 
to this divinity; whose worship, ever contested by 
thrones, and those nearest to thrones, appears little 
adapted to be celebrated by the soldiers of Waterloo? 
dazzled by the fires which flash from their arms, 
proud of their waving plumes, and flattered by a sen- 
timent of superiority, which the soldier affects over 
the citizen; led by a Chief more schooled in fields of 
Mars, than in the forum of Westminster. It is to be 
feared, they would more remember the laurels they 
have acquired, than their duties as citizens; and lest 
they may celebrate the obsequies of liberty with 
peals from the same clarions which elsewhere have an- 
nounced their legitimate victories! for the last agony 
of public liberty has always been sounded by mili- 
tary flourishes. In a single day, the pretorian bands 
trampled into the city tlie inhabitants of Rome, over 
the dead bodies of twenty thousand of their fellow- 
citizens. In all times and countries, it has been ob- 
served, that the soldier engages the citizen with more 
unrelenting fury, than the enemy himself; the death 
of the latter contents him; but the former he must 
insult, as well as massacre. The question of the 
civil superiority over the military, is not sufficiently 
clear in the eyes of the soldier, and too often he 
would rejoice to refer it to the arbitration of force. 

Great standing armies are in themselves so gi'eat 
an evil, that they form the obstacle, or the pretext 
for an obstacle, to the establishment of the greatest 
good a nation can enjo}'; that of a free constitution. 



244 

England, it has often been said, may l^ave a good con- 
stitution, because she has not a large standing army: 
but France, a continental power, and therefore com- 
pelled to maintain a very numerous army, is unable 
to adopt the same mode of government. Excellent! 
but of all that could be said against great armaments, 
could any thing be conceived to condemn them more 
effectually, to plead louder against them, than this in- 
terdiction of what they most need, fulminated against 
every people. What, forsooth! a people must want a 
constitution, because it pays a great army! it must 
endure this positive expense, and the privation of all 
the benefits this army prevents! because it maintains 
a numerous army, it can neither have good laws nor 
extirpate the vices of its institutions! it must be utter- 
ly ruined because it contributes the pay of numerous 
troops! it must be a slave, because it has many de- 
fenders that are such! But nay; it is precisely be- 
cause a great army cannot be dispensed with, that a 
strong constitution is of absolute necessity; because 
the prince possesses great means to raise himself 
above the laws, barriers must be erected which he 
cannot overleap; and thus, in all this question, the 
attempt to raise an obstacle, has only created a mo- 
tive. England already complains that a long war, 
the multitude of grades, the glare of arms, the illu- 
sion of military decorations, have infected the public 
spirit of her people; she fears it may become oblite- 
rated by this new direction; thus estranged from the 
civil order by the seduction of arms; always irresisti- 
ble when addressed to the young. Young men, like 
the Achilles of fable, are always ready to seize upon 
arms; and of all the objects that can be offered them, 



245 

they will not be seen to balance in their choice; it 
will always fall in favour of arms. If from considera- 
tions of Social Order we descend to those of Finance, 
it will be found that the mass of taxes and of debts 
which crush all states alike, proceeds I. from the 
maintenance of too numerous armies; II. from wars, 
waged with these armies. The militar}'' department 
of each state, absorbs nearly half its revenue; includ- 
ing pensions for services of ancient date. The army, 
the fleet, the military pensions and others amount, 
in France, to an entire half of the revenue; the same 
calculation is applicable to the other states of Europe. 
Suppose war to arrive. The expenditure must be 
doubled, trebled, quadrupled: but, where are the 
means to come from? The ordinary revenues will 
no longer suffice: loans are therefore, the only re- 
source: and what loans! Behold future generations 
mortgaged, and, as it were, devoured in advance. 
Behold also, the condition to which loans have redu- 
ced all the states of Europe. At the approach of 
war, a part of the objects of ordinary consumption in 
Europe, advance to prices which exceed the facul- 
ties of the greater number. We commence with 
being ruined, with the prospect of being conquerors, 
or conquered, or perhaps defended: and the preludes 
to Te Deiim^ are groans and bankruptcies. To fol- 
low the rules of reason, must not states commence 
by regulating their armies according to their reve- 
nues; and the number of their bayonets by that of 
their crowns? For in the final analysis, in politics, 
as in economy, we must always have reference to 
these. 

L 1 



246 

A state of general and durable peace appears to 
result, 1. From the general system of Europe; 
2. From the union and intentions of the principal 
powers; and ought it not to be the first fruit of this 
peace, so much desired, and so long delayed, for all 
to lay down arms at once? By disarming with com- 
mon consent, all would find themselves upon the 
same ground, as if equally armed; for power results 
not from armies in themselves, but from the relative 
force of armies. By disarming at the same time, 
all would find themselves equajly strong. And short 
of this, how can it be thought, how can it be said, 
we are at peace? If each continues to maintain all 
the troops he can support, it is little better than being 
at war; and to call it peace, would be an error. One 
power keeps on foot three hundred thousand men: I 
must have an equal number, says a neighbouring 
power. Not for any exigency of his own does he 
require this army, but on account of his neighbours 
armament; the evil entirely consists, therefore^ in 
comparison. Let one disarm, all are ready to do the 
same: the example only is wanting. We argue not 
against a necessary force; our objections apply merely 
to what is superfluous: for in this superfluity is the 
source of the mischief. 

And as if permanent armies were not enough, Eu- 
rope superadds a new establishment, designated in 
each country by different denominations; militia^ na- 
tional guards^ fencihles^ landwhers^ landstiirmm^ in a 
word, whatever is not regular army. Thus entire 
nations are transformed into armies; an immense 
fund, always ready to feed the already overgrown 
scourge of standing armies. These succedaneous 



247 

armies compose the great mass of the European po- 
pulation. The result of peace for Europe is, there- 
fore, to render her exclusively a soldier'! Where will 
this military mania stop? What will be its result? It 
impels each state to maintain, at the same time what 
ruins itself, and also ruins its neighbours; by the ter- 
ror resulting from this hostile vicinity. 

The number of soldiers in Europe is immense; 
they must be counted by m.iHions of men; we must 
count also by millions the expense of their daily main 
tenance; they devour all. 

The people, every where, exhaust themselves in 
toil and sweat, to sustain, very poorly, these millions 
of soldiers. 

Russia has formed an army of more than eight 
hundred thousand men; in this we perceive the very 
source of the evil. 

This armed mass intimidates all states; each deems 
it necessary to answer with an army as equal as pos- 
sible. Austria, and Prussia will keep on foot, there- 
fore, all the troops they can support; and, besides, all 
their population will live under military laws of pre- 
caution. The king of the Netherlands seeing with 
solicitude the great armaments of France, and of Prus- 
sia, will likewise arm all he can; the Germanic con- 
federation, in its turn, will raise a formidable force; 
Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, will make great efforts 
to give themselves an attitude worthy of some atten- 
tion; and Piedmont himself, placed between France 
and Austria, will believe his security, on either hand, 
attached to an army, such as never was possessed 
by the princes w^ho founded, or have maintained this 
state. Thus fear, precautions, and example, spread 



248 

ing from one to another, Europe, in the midst of pro- 
found peace proclaimed with solemnity, will find her- 
self armed as in the time of a desperate war. 

The Europeans have not learnt to do like the Ro- 
mans; who, returning from war, laid aside the mili- 
tary habit and resumed that of citizens; in modem 
Europe, on the contrary, men sleep mounted, as if 
the enemy were at the gates; their helmets on, their 
lances couched; — accosting each other as allies; and 
leaning on swords, they embrace. By peace, as in 
war, the sword is always present; ever menacing to 
imitate that of Brennus, weighing the tributes of 
Rome. 

In the actual times this unfortunate necessity of 
maintaining a numerous military, proceeds, chiefly, 
from the injudicious arrangements of the congress of 
Vienna; which are always in view. In placing Rus- 
sia above and facing Austria; by separating the dif- 
ferent parts of Prussia; the congress imposed a law 
both upon Austria, and Prussia, to remain strongly 
armed. Their armies, these living citadels, must 
serve them instead of ramparts. Prussia is equally 
destitute of frontiers on the side of France; and here, 
also, she must make front with soldiers. By apply- 
ing the same principle to other states, we find them 
all compelled to remain armed, and ruined on account 
of their great armaments. To all these scourges, 
another still must be added; for, the series of evils 
once commenced can never be arrested. We no 
longer see the prince surrounded by guards — but ar- 
mies. The object is no longer the security of his 
person, or the decoration of the throne; here all limits 
are exceeded; and no pretext of utility can be assign 



249 

e^l. Meanwhile, it is a service which presents many 
attractions. Access to the prince, residence in capi- 
tals, privileged promotions, liberal appointments, 
splendid uniforms, precedence over other corps of the 
army, jealous with reason of so many prerogatives^ 
all are found united to render these troops the object 
of every wish, and the aim of all ambition. What 
mean around the throne these numerous battalions, 
glittering with all that is most brilliant in art, or daz- 
zling in war; this splendour, v.hich becomes, among 
citizens, a motive to emulate military luxury? Are 
they assembled for the safety of the prince? But is 
an army the only means to secure his safety? and 
from what can one man be defended by an army? As 
prince, an army assembled about him is, therefore, an 
avowal of fears and suspicion; the thickness of the 
rampart only betrays the intensity of terror; it resem- 
bles the offerings ex voto, whose magnitude is rather 
an emblem of extraordinary panics, than of grateful 
piety. But, in case of division with a nation, (for against 
nations these guards are intended,) from what would 
a guard defend? Would it not finally act with the na- 
tion? Securities must be sought elsewhere; they are 
found in good laws; in the love and gratitude of na- 
tions; in their attachment to the prince, as'the source 
of their prosperity; as the first link in the whole chain 
of their interests. These are solid guards, whicl^ 
can never be shaken. 

Hume remarks, that the Tudors, the most despo- 
tic of the English sovereigns, had no guards. Au- 
gustus walked the streets of Rome with the simplicity 
of a private citizen; his successors of the lowering 
brow, their breast covered by the terrific head of the 



250 

Gorgon, ended tragically. The poniard of a resolute- 
man, easily cleared its way through their Cohorts; 
while the Titus's, the Antonines, tasted days of tran- 
quillity, abandoning themselves to tlie guard of a 
people who watched to preserve itsfprotectors. His- 
tory makes no mention of the guards of St. Lewis; 
Charles V., Lewis XIL, kept only a small number 
about them; by degrees they increased; and Lewis 
XIV. no longer deigned to appear, except, like the 
monarchs of the East, in the midst of a golden cloud, 
which gave to all his excursion^ the appearance of a 
triumphal march. Europe has to thank this prince 
for a two-fold pest, the luxury of armies, and of 
courts; they both date from him; and, however de- 
structive and ruinous may have been his wars, his 
pomps have cost Europe still more. 

Superficial observers have attributed the ruin of the 
monarchy to the diminution of this guard; as if a 
few thousand men, more or less, would have been 
able to prevail against an entire nation; and suffice to 
arrest it in the career it had commenced. They 
would have been crushed and overwhelmed by the 
avalanche ^^ with what they attempted to defend. 

The impressions of the Czar Peter will be recol- 
lected, at the aspect of these troops resplendent with 
gold, and composed of men whose faces were ex- 
posed to the fire of the enemy; while their coats 
would have perished by exposure to the rain. 

Napoleon had formed of the guard a real army, 
the glory of the French, and the terror of the armies 
of Europe. Honour be rendered to this phalanx, 

* The fall of a mountain-crng, or of a glacier ; common in the Alps, and 
mher high mountains, 



I 



251 

which had never its equal; and of which it may be 
said, as Corneille says of one of his heroes, the last 
— was an illustrious, sigh. A sublime expression, 
which will never be forgotten, which Greece and 
Rome would have envied France, signalized the close 
of its career, and affixed the last seal to its gloryl 
This corps had nothing in common with its prede- 
cessors. The luxury of Darius glittered upon the 
guards of Lewis XIV. The imperial guard was the 
phalanx of brass which, under Alexander, marched 
to the conquest of Asia. 

But, in the victorious hands of a chief, such a corps, 
the ardour of whose affections equals that of its 
achievements, which breathes only combats, and 
lives only by obedience, is as dangerous for liberty as 
a social instrument; as, against the enemy, it is admi- 
rable as an engine of war. Accordingly, as it won 
for this chief many laurels, it added, also, much to 
his power; and would, alone, have maintained it; if, 
in the nature of things, its continuance had been pos- 
sible. 

A state of continual war may endure a corps of this 
nature. Its dangers are compensated by its mobility; 
by the distance of the places it then inhabits; by its 
occupation in the business of war; but returning to 
reside in the interior, soldiers of the capital, infected 
by the voluptuousness of modem Capuas, often, at 
the instigation even of their chiefs, claiming to inter- 
fere; they would be seen to mingle in the debates 
and interests of the city, and take a part in them 
which can never become those who bear arms in the 
name of country; it would necessarily become a party 
in political debates; it would be introduced into them 



252 

by the different factions, who would seek to gain it 
to their support; its first corrupters would be its own 
chiefs, and it would be always from the midst of this 
corps, that other armed corps would receive the sig- 
nal to interfere in political debates. A too striking 
example has been presented in the revolution, to leave 
any doubt as to what must be expected in regard to 
this. The establishment of these permanent armed 
corps, about the persons of princes, introduces an 
embarrassing complication in governments, extreme- 
ly difficult to direct. 

It has been remarked, at the commencement of 
this chapter, that the permanence of armaments was 
an importation from the^»orth, made by barbarians. 

There exists a second, which claims a similar ori- 
gin. I allude to the military costume, and occupa- 
tions, become general among the Princes, and the 
Great of Europe. We are indebted to Germany for 
this change; which represents princes as military, 
rather than as civil chiefs. 

In times anterior to the revolution, as well in France 
as in all the south of Europe, neither princes nor 
others put on the military costume excepting at par- 
ticular occasions; civil forms were alone admitted, and 
received; all images of war were concentrated at the 
frontiers; all images of peace were seen in the inte- 
rior, and filled it exclusively. Military men laid aside 
all marks of the profession, on their return to their 
families and home. The Germans and people of the 
north, stamped with rudeness of manners, devoted 
to the life of a garrison, alone passed their lives in 
harness; alone still resembled the old paintings of oui' 
ancestors, which present them grasping a dagger, and 



253 

all their limbs eternally imprisoned between walls of 
brass. 

Free England, enfranchised from so many other 
restraints and prejudices, was never infected with 
this military mania; with her, a military parade is ne- 
ver permitted to mingle its dread with the pleasures 
which assemble peaceable citizens: all joy would dis- 
appear at its aspect. But, at present, the manners of 
the North have completed the invasion of Europe. 
Courts, private habitations, have become a species of 
tents, where all has taken a military appearance; the 
military coat, happy usurper of the civil dress, is 
even displayed upon forms for which it seems to have 
been least intended; and wherever the great, and au- 
thorities are seen to repair, it is always among sol- 
diers they take their seats and are perceived. 

Let homage the most just, be rendered to defend- 
ers of country! Let their services be honoured, and 
their blood revered as it deserves! Who would 
think of retrenching the smallest part of this hard 
earnt tribute of gratitude! But what has this in com- 
mon with military appearances, and the continual re- 
hearsal pf acts from the military profession? Does it 
even tenjd to enhance our consideration for the mili- 
tary, to see its gorgeous apparel assumed by all with- 
out distinction; when it equally designates and con- 
founds him who has united the reality of war to its 
image, with the pacific hero who has only achieved 
—its brilliant appearances? For the man whose 
martial exploits have raised to distinction, it may be 
considered as a species of endowment; while in him 
who has ever kept at a prudent distance from the 

M m 



254 

f>hock of arms, it can only be recognised as a vain 
parade, and a caricature. Thus multiplied reviews 
in the midst of peace, must appear but the parodies 
of those required by the nature of things, when. Eu- 
rope was one field of Mars. Other times, other 
cares. 

The diffusion of the military spirit is opposed to 
that which discovers itself in Europe, and which in- 
clines her towards the establishment of representa:- 
tive government, as her uniform mode of existence. 
Now, the nature, tendency, and effects of this go- 
vernment are so many contradictions which clash 
with the military spirit. Opinion is the soul of the 
former; force, of the latter; liberty is the aim of re- 
presentative government; passive obedience of the 
military; the civil order, is the object of representa- 
tive government; to which the military is foreign, or 
rather hostile. For the good order of the state, 
therefore, a just proportion must be established be- 
tween the two, that the state may be defended, and, 
at the same time, liberty preserved: To produce 
this harmony between them, is the chief excellence 
and the greatest difficulty of governments. 

It follows from these considerations, that Europe 
suffers greatly from the excess of her military esta- 
blishment; that she derives from it no utility; that the 
disarming of one, would cause others to follow the 
example; that great armies are contrary to her gene- 
ral spirit, which disposes her to civil occupations; 
and that a happier occasion could not be offered to 
realize a wish, equally sanctioned by reason and hu- 
manity, than the epoch in which the hand of the most 
powerful princes of Europe, closing at length the 



2S5 

temple of Janus, has sealed under its bolts the moiv 
ster of war; and when their voice has proclaimed that 
all their forces shall be employed to retain him in 
captivity. By their means will be realized what the 
poet has said, 

Et centum vinctus abeiiis 
Post tergum nodis, fremet horridus ore cruento. 

But there is still another scourge, which remains 
to be considered: — the public debts of states. 

At this sinister name, I see all the fortunes of 
states disappear, and all their virtues. These debts 
are of two natures; funded, and floating. In the first 
case, their malignity is restricted; they simply over- 
whelm nations: in the second, they also vitiate their 
morality. As they have multiplied, they have, ne- 
cessarily become floating, for the greater part; there 
are more rents for sale, than persons disposed to 
buy them, for the purpose of permanent revenue. 
All that part not thus constituted, floats, passes from 
hand to hand; circulates continually in quest of buyers 
and loss or gain, never reposes. Its price is a deceitful 
thermometer of the public fortune; for the state owes 
not the capital, but only the interest; there is no fixed 
term for reimbursement. The accidental value of 
these effects resembles that of commodities, which 
are valuable according to the competition of buyers. 
The purest diamond without buyers, has no more 
value than the most common stone; — wares left upon 
the market, have no value when all wants are satisfi- 
ed. It is therefore, the satisfaction of the wants of 
all, which fixes the price of public debts; when these 
wants have absorbed what is required to supply them. 



256 

th^ residuary part of the debt, has only a con- 
ventional value; for it may happen that a purchaser 
cannot be found, and its possessor, who bought it 
originally as an article of commerce, is reluctantly com- 
pelled to hold it as a rent. 

His situation resembles that of a man, obliged to re- 
ceive the interest of a bill of exchange, the principal 
of which he should be unable to realize. In times 
anterior to the revolution, almost all the debts of 
states were funded; a thousand circumstances have 
caused, at present, that the smallest part of them only 
takes this direction; all the rest floats, encumbers the 
markets, and constitutes the glut of public effects, 
which compose the exchequer balances offered for 
sale in all the exchanges, and in all the gazettes of 
Europe. 

But whatever the nature of these debts, they have 
general and common effects, which demand our no- 
tice. Under one form or other, they absorb the re- 
venues of States. 

They deprive governments of their independence ; 
whoever wants, whoever owes, is not free; govern- 
ments commence with the alienation of their fortune, 
and' end with that of their liberty. At their side start 
up rival powers, nay more, superior powers, who 
command them in the name of an irresistible authority; 
that of their wants, of necessity ; they ultimately de- 
cide upon peace and war, upon all. Where is the 
prince who would dare to engage in an enterprise, 
opposed by the great bankers of Europe? It would 
be necessary to have made peace with them, before 
any thoughts of making war upon other sovereigns; 
the colossal fortunes they possess, make it necessary 



257 

to propitiate them; lest they should throw all into confu- 
sion, by too sudden operations on the medium of circu- 
lation. A signature on their part has power to raise all 
the billows of financial tempests, as the trident of Nep- 
time could appease the angry ocean! The wants of 
states are immense; they are numbered by thousands of 
millions ; but these thousands of millions come not to 
offer themselves; they must be sought for. The spe- 
cies of agents familiarized with the pursuit of this 
treasure, accustomed to follow it through all its rami- 
fications, must necessarily be in high estimation ; it is 
at the same time very precious, and very dear. They 
are indispensable, consequently, in final analysis, they 
are the real masters of the state. The scene of Lewis 
XIV,* with Samuel Barnard is renewed every day. 
All governments wear the chains of their servants; 
and far from aspiring to break them, ambitious of cap- 
tivity, their sole study is to increase the number. 
Priests of Plutus, and magicians, armed with a wand 
which riches have learnt to obey, they pursue gold 
and silver from country to country ; they displace and 



* Desmarets, minister of finance, from 1709 till the death of Lewis XIV. 
in a very critical state of the exchequer invited Samuel Barnard to Marly, 
■while the court was there. The king perceiving them together, said to the 
banker, «' You have never seen Marly; you shall see it as I take my prome- 
nade; and when I have shewn you the place, you shall return to Desmarets." 
Barnard followed ; and during the walk he was held in conversation bj' the 
king, who carried him to see every thing; and entertained him with the atten- 
tion, and the graces which he so well knew how to employ, when he felt in- 
clined to overwhelm. 

This conduct of Lewis XIV towards Barnard was an expedient of Desma- 
rets to procure money. He succeeded beyond his hopes. Barnard returned 
from the promenade enchanted with the king; he said he would rather incur 
the risque of ruining himself than to leave such a monarch under embarrass- 
ment; and although much was already due him, he offered to lend the minis- 
ter a larger amount than he had purposed to ask of him. See J\Iem. Due de 
St. Simond, 



258 

transport them; at their voice these treasures approach, 
retreat, multiply, retire, appear or vanish; to day in 
one place, and to-morrow in another. All the trea- 
sure of Europe is attracted towards these great re- 
servoirs; and when private men would approach them, 
the high prices condemn them to want, or else to be 
crushed. The interest of sums obtained in this mode, 
form enormous burdens; corresponding taxes are re- 
quired; and following generations, devoured before 
born, find themselves loaded with the sad inheritance 
of the errors, or profusions of their fathers. The 
sudden transportation of riches from one country to 
another, keeps all fortunes in a state of suspense, and 
baffles all calculations ; cupidity is inflamed by the 
spectacle of rapid fortunes, than which nothing acts 
more powerfully upon the mind of man ; labour and 
industry fall into contempt, as means of wealth too 
slow, and too limited : the world is soon changed, as 
it were, into a gaming table, around which desperate 
gamblers are reciprocally occupied in taking advantage 
of each others errors, and ruining themselves by 
transfers of conventional values. In a moral view, 
public debts have become horrible scourges; real 
cancers, which corrode the hearts of men, and the 
fortunes of states. Europe at this moment oifers a 
memorable example of the danger of opening this field 
to financial speculatioiis. This is the third time in 
the space of an hundred years, it has been presented: 
the bank of Law, the assignats, and the great Loans of 
1815 to 1818. In a part of Europe the public fortune 
has been seen to collapse, like a balloon in which an 
aperture should release its gaseous contents. It has 
been seen to decline towards the point of greatest de- 



259 

pression, in the most disastrous epoch of war; we 
have seen all calculations disappointed, embarrass- 
ments propagated from one country to another ; and 
a simultaneous effort to escape from the wreck, but 
increasing the number of victims. 

We have seen fortunes, which towered like moun- 
tains, sink and crumble into grains of sand; the irre- 
gular ebb and flow of this sea, has overwhelmed the 
colossal masses which had been constructed upon its 
treacherous surface; leaving to the stings of remorse 
and despair their deluded possessors. 

Then the secret was known which had veiled all 
these operations; towards the conclusion of the game, 
the parties interested in its chances were all of one 
mind to offer each other, mutually, what they all had 
bought to sell again. The remedy has aggi^avated 
the evil, in a two-fold manner; 1. It has tended to 
increase the quantity of the species of property thus 
offered at a sacrifice; 2. It has proved, that after this 
remedy, no other was possible, and that this was the 
last relief. The government, individuals, societies, 
have made sacrifices; what have they prevented? 
They have expended their money to no purpose; they 
have put themselves in the place of the speculators, 
-and the speculators have taken theirs; the proposed 
relief has had similar effects to what would be pro- 
duced, if a commercial house, in the midst of a gene- 
ral suspension of payments, should announce that it 
would pay all its notes on presentation; is it not evi- 
dent that all the paper of Paris would be offered it; 
and that before the close of day it would not have a 
crown left; but, besides that, effects to the amount of 
millions would have been attracted and remain depre- 



260 

ciated before the door, again closed, where, at the 
commencement of the day, such punctuality had been 
obserye$|? 

Thc5 Miccours once given are not of a nature to be 
renewed; and the public, impressed with this idea, 
has a full view of the evil, in all its extent; aggra- 
vated by its known incapacity of remedy. And a 
clear proof that this evil proceeds from no real dis- 
tress, that its source is not in the nature of things, 
arises from the consideration that it exists at a mo- 
ment of increasing prosperity in the finances; of abun- 
dance in the harvests; of a diminution of burdens by 
the evacuation of the territory, and the confirmation 
of peace. 

Such an order of things is evidently incompatible 
with the return of morals, which there is so much ap- 
parent solicitude to procure. Every thing should be 
done that may tend to close this abyss, from which 
so many malignant vapours arise; and though altoge- 
ther impossible to effect it at once, yet reason dictates 
that nothing should be neglected to accomplish it 
gradually, by applying all the means which states can 
dispose of to this object; principally by the retrench- 
ment of a vain luxury; by the prompt dismission of 
foreign troops; and by the sale of all the crown lands, 
and immoveable property remaining at the disposal 
of the state. 

Note (c). 

The constitutions of the greater part of the states 
of Europe are founded, even at the present day, on 
the Code of Conquest. " Without doubt," says M. 
Constant, " and this explains why so many obstacles 



to the establishment of Hberty are encountered in our 
own times." The poHtical writers of antiquity com- 
mit power exclusively to the hands of the higher 
classes. 

Aristotle makes this condition an essential part, 
even of a well constituted Democracy. On the con- 
trary, since the revival of letters, the advocates of 
liberty have never thought its establishment possible 
xvithout the abolition of predominant casts. They have 
seen enemies in the class, considered by the ancients 
as guides. Is there not an historical cause for this 
opposition of views? Among ancient nations, the in- 
habitants, if not all indigenous, were so confounded 
with the colonies which had, not conquered, but civil- 
ized them, that it was impossible to distinguish the 
heterogeneous parts in the same community; the in- 
equality of ranks always originated in a moral or phy- 
sical superiority; slaves are to be accounted as cyphers 
in the ancient social system, and therefore make no 
exception. 

Nobles, among the ancients, were fellow citizens 
enjoying superior opulence, and consideration be- 
cause their ancestors had deserved well of society in 
its infant state. In modern Europe, on the contrary, 
the inequality of ranks proceeds from the most re- 
volting origin, from conquest; the civilized inhabi- 
tants of the Roman empire were shared out like herds 
of cattle among their ferocious conquerors. The in- 
stitutions of Europe have retained for ages the im- 
pression of military force. Vanquished by the sword, 
and, by the terror of the sword continued in servi- 
tude. Their masters have not even deigned to dis- 
guise by ingenious fables, or to render respectable by 

N n 



262 

pretensions, well or ill founded, to superior wisdom 
the principle of their power. The two races have 
been long perpetuated without other reciprocity of 
relations, than subjection on the one part, and oppress 
don on the other. All, even the names of the con- 
(juerors, retraced to the vanquished the invasion of 
their wasted possessions, the massacre of their unfor- 
tunate ancestors, and the humiliation bequeathed as 
their eternal, and almost only, inheritance; or, if these 
haughty masters substituted, in place of their original 
and barbarous appellations, names more familiar and 
known — they w^ere the names of provinces become 
their prey! All things, from the fourth to the thir- 
teenth century, reminded civilized but conquered 
Europe, of the scourges she had suffered from the 
North. The human species has been long in recover- 
ing from this horrible degradation ! Long, indeed ! 
since the writers of Europe still find it necessary to 
continue the war against the chimeras of absolute 
power; the phantoms of Feudalism or Aristocracy; 
and the substantial grievances of great standing ar- 
mies, and the prodigal expenditure they involve. 

The preceding observations are from the pen of 
M. B. Constant, member of the French Chamber of 
Deputies; the colleague and friend of the Marquis 
de la Fayette. If destitute of other interest, in a 
country whose soil has never been trampled by the 
haughty foot of a conqueror, these sketches of the 
deformities which have existed, and, some of which 
still exist, in countries where knowledge and refine- 
ment have made great advances, and are extensively 
diffused, will, at least, present the attraction of con- 
trast; and serve as a foil to enhance, the lustre of the 
gem we possess. 



263 



CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION 

Upon the Evacuation of France. 

The occupation of a country may be of two deb- 
criptions; temporary, or permanent; made by foreign 
ers for their own account; or by foreigners as auxil- 
iaries, paid by the country itself, and serving in its 
name. 

A permanent occupation by corps of foreign troops, 
would be an actual division of the sovereignty, and a 
direct interruption to the liberty of a nation. 

It would no longer command wherever these 
foreigners should be found; on the contrary it might 
find itself commanded, and, virtually, would be so: 
it would experience constraint in its resolutions and 
in the exercise of its rights, from the fear ever in- 
spired by an armed corps at another's disposal. This 
consideration, in all times and countries, has been 
the motive of jealousies and precautions against any 
foreign troop, which presented itself under whatever 
pretext. The same motive of liberty and security, 
has caused to be regulated with precision, whatever 
relates to the passage and admission of any descrip- 
tion, conceded to foreign troops. Nations, like fami- 
lies, are bound to defend their interior from the intro- 
duction of whatever makes not a part of it. They 



264 

are sacred asylums which ought not to remain open 
except for their members, or the directly interested. 
On the other hand, corps pf foreign troops in the 
pay of a country, may be considered under many re- 
lations essentially different. 

Whether more or less numerous; 
Whether the country be a republic, or a monarchy; 
Whether they approach the prince, more or less: 
Whether they can participate, or even be invited 
to participate, in the affections of the inhabitants; 
whether they may be at once to some the object of 
complacency, and that of jealousy to others. 

Whether the country be or be not sufficient for its 
own defence. 

Whether these troops are employed only in case 
of war, and for the time of its continuance. 

The subject, as is seen, presents a great number 
of relations and views. 

In two particulars, France has suffered much from 
the presence of foreigners, money and honour; but 
especially the latter; the money would have been 
doubled and carried to the frontier, if that would have 
prevented its violation. After so many years of tri- 
umph, how is it possible to become accustomed to 
see at home, the standards and uniforms of the ene- 
my, not brought there by victory: the national pride 
must have suffered a martjTdom of every day, of 
every moment at their presence, by any other title 
than that of capture. Europe has justly appreciated 
the degree to which this pride was wounded: and 
has regulated her measures by the dangers of an in- 
creasing irritation, in the breast of a great people. 
Prudence is sometimes a sage counsellor for gene- 



265 

rosity; and the well-advised eagerly offer, what they 
would be unable to withhold without danger. 

Europe has restored France to herself, and freed 
her from the embarrassing burden of her troops. 
France cheered their departure with a cry of joy. 
Behold her, therefore, evacuated by all that has en- 
tered her territory, against her will; let us now con- 
sider what relates to that which has entered, and re- 
mains in the midst of her, without her will; let us see 
how far this evacuation can be deemed complete, so 
long as there shall exist in her bosom a permanent 
foreign army, unknown to the legislature. It is per- 
ceived, that I refer to the Swiss army residing in 
France. France also possesses a German corps, 
which has no other title for this admission into her 
bosom, except having constituted a part of the corps 
denominated the army of Conde."^ 

Here a serious question presents itself; and one 
that certainly appertains to the constitutional system* 
It follows: 

The introduction of a corps of foreign troops, sub- 
ject to laws of internal discipline, of formation, of re- 
compense, of appointments peculiar to itself, is it 
legal without the sanction of the three branches of 
the legislature; or whether does this right of introduc- 
tion result, necessarily, from the right to conclude 
treaties attributed to the prince by the constitutional 
act? Is it a necessary derivative from this right to 
treat with foreigners? To treat witli those who re- 
main without, for the interests of a nation; or to intro- 
duce foreign troops, and permanently establish them 

* The le!;ion of Hohenlolie. 



266 

within; are these similar things, or do they flow one 
from the other? 

Such is the question, which arises upon the intro- 
duction of these troops by virtue of the right to con- 
clude treaties; for no other origin dan be assigned it; 
a question which has not yet been examined by these 
principles. A few words have been thrown out, 
rather as hints, than grounds of reasoning; as provo- 
cations to the immediate action of opinion, rather 
than appeals to reflection; as incitements to discuss, 
rather than discussions purposed to connect with the 
constitutional system. This order of constitutional 
ideas I purpose to lead to the present question, and 
to examine it by their application. As this order is 
all of calmness and of reason, they only should be 
employed in the inquiry. The object is not to 
irritate; nor to constrain; still less to excite tumult; 
but simply to enlighten, to class, and to convince. 
The greatest of all known forces is light generally 
diffused. — Enlightened opinion, is the soul of repre- 
sentative government; the force of all government is 
in conformity with its principle; and the most perfect 
conformity with this government is found, therefore, 
in light communicated to public opinion. It is ac- 
cordingly sufficient to elucidate the question of right 
to introduce a foreign armed force, as a consequence 
of the right to conclude treaties. If the connexion 
between the two things cannot be assigned it will fol- 
low, — not that these troops must be dismissed imme- 
diately; but that their presence must be authorized by 
the three branches of the legislature, — before it will 
be legal. 

When the prince comprehended in his single per- 



267 

son these three branches, he was under no obligation 
to demand the consent of any other. But, since the 
division has been made, it is evident the procedure 
which, in the first case, was allowable, cannot take 
place in the second. Now such is the state of things 
in France. The legislative power is divided. Con- 
sequently, the same action as when concentrated in 
one only, is inadmissible. In our constitutional sys- 
tem, the mode of recruiting and of promotion is sub- 
ject to the regulation of the legislature; and there 
shall exist a permanent, foreign army, not subject to 
this control ! The legislature, then, does not rule all 
the parts of society, of the territory, of the powers 
exercised upon its surface; there are, therefore, two 
States in the State. To conclude from the right to 
treat, the right to introduce permanent foreign troops, 
is to draw a conclusion from a principle with which 
it has no correspondence. Treaties are made for the 
advantage and in the interest of nations. Rights, 
and especially such as imply serious consequences at 
the expense of third parties, must not be supposed; 
if they cannot be supposed, as it respects individuals, 
how much more should they be scrutinized, when 
nations are interested! rights only exist according to 
the sense in which they were understood by the par- 
ties contracting; now, the nation certainly never 
understood that the right given to conclude treaties, 
made in its interests, would include that, of conclud- 
ing treaties from which such a burden should result, 
as the maintenance of a foreign army. This con- 
struction evidently combines surprise, ambiguit}^, and 
reference to the past. Now the affairs of nations can 
be negotiated by neither of the three; nor can all of 



268 

them constitute rights. The constitutional system 
has been more anciently, and better established in 
England than any other part of Europe; in that coun- 
try the introduction of foreign troops is always the 
object of a positive law; the legislature would not 
tolerate any deviation in this respect, more than any 
other irregularity; nay more, the national troops them- 
selves are also placed under its control, for the bond 
of discipline and military authority must annually re- 
ceive a new sanction from the legislative body. Be- 
cause in England liberty is the chief concern and 
principal aim of government; and they know in that 
country how fatal to it the interference of the military 
may prove. 

England is the only country of Europe in which 
all is transacted civilly; elsewhere all things are per- 
formed in the military style; not even the public 
amusements escape an interference of the military; 
upon the continent, even pleasure is courted at the 
point of the bayonet; and temples, too often, as if 
consecrated to the god of war, resound with the din 
of arms, and instruments proper to inflame the desire 
of carnage! The prince, as he ought, is the chief of 
the army; none but him can be such; but he com- 
mands only the legal army; he cannot create one for 
himself. If the legislature have no voice in it; if, 
especially, the prince be permitted to introduce fo- 
reign troops, then he becomes both prince and con- 
queror of the same state; he can impose laws upon 
the state, by the hands of men who are destitute of 
its affections; and herein consists the danger of fo- 
reign troops. National troops present not the same 
inco;nveniences; and, accordingly, absolute princes 



269 

have always been over-fond of foreigners. The mi- 
litary profession of itself abounds with inconveniences 
to the civil and political order of a country; they are 
tempered by the sentiment of country; this is die 
soldier's pledge, and every military man has need of 
it. But the foreign soldier offers none; he can have 
no affection but for him who employs, pays, and re- 
wards him. The right to introduce foreign troops 
would be less dangerous in a republic; because the 
people have less to a];)prehend from their magistrates, 
than from a prince; the power of the first tends less 
to usurpation than that of the second; and therefore 
this establishment presents fewer dangers under the 
republican, than under the monarchical system. By 
introducing foreign troops into France, therefore, 
without the consent of the legislature, the new sys- 
tem has been concluded from the old; and the appli- 
cation of what took place in ancient times has been 
made to the time before us. This irregularity has 
proceeded, 1. From habit, a power whose empire few 
can escape ; 2. From our inexperience in the legisla- 
tive career. We still dwell, as it were, upon the 
frontiers of two countries, foreign to each other; and 
when we build, we seem to delight in replacing some 
stones from the ancient, in the modern edifice. 

It would be very captious and very idle to say, 
that whatever is not abolished by the charter, the im- 
mediate work of the prince, must be preserved; this 
allegation would scarcely .be tolerable for secondarv 
objects; but assuredly it never has been, and never 
will be understood and pretended in things of a pri- 
mary and elementary class, like die subject we treat. 

o o 



270 

All power emanates from the charter; if nothing 
©an be retrenched from it, neither can aught be add- 
ed, especially in favour of power; the charter sup- 
poses no ancient rights, nor derivatives of rights; re- 
gularity is the essence of representative government. 
It allows no discords, no contradictions, no fancies. 
Nothing can enter it, nothing can be maintained un- 
der it, but that only which the order of principles 
permits to be introduced and to remain. Whatever 
is foreign to it, or contradicts it, must inevitably fall. 

The Swiss have been recalled into France, as the 
household troops were re-established, in 1814. How 
often was it asserted that this marvellous corps had 
been the support of the throne; and that the dissolu- 
tion of the one had caused the ruin of the other? To 
create anew, therefore, this support, was the object 
of first attention. 

For a time, there were no other topics of conver- 
sation but the reds, the blues, the greens. All the 
young were seen crowding to be enrolled in these 
party-coloured squadrons. The 20th of March ar- 
rived to teach the value of this support for the throne. 
The walls of Jericho fell not more easily at the first 
bray of the trumpet, than these frail ramparts at the 
first explosion of the tempest of that day. Truth de- 
mands tlie avowal that the Swiss army has not found 
much more favour in the minds of the French, and 
that it has taken no invincible hold of their affections. 
This arises from many causes. 1. The French, and 
every people should do the same, cannot, but with 
anguish of heart, see the throne surrounded and 
guarded by foreign soldiers. Thirty millions of 
Frenchmen will always believe themselves sufficient- 



271 

ly capable of performing this duty, without the neces- 
sity of demanding the succour of any in its accom- 
pHshment. But the custom is of ancient date; the 
inveteracy, I had almost said, the opprobrium, of the 
disease, is not its cure. The French of the present 
day are no longer the French of other times. They 
see, they feel and know things upon which the minds, 
and the eyes of their ancestors were never fixed. 
That, which at one time, did not even shock, appears 
to them now an intolerable deformity. 

Besides, the moment of their introduction, was 
very ill chosen. An hundred and fifty thousand 
foreign soldiers loaded the territory with an oppres- 
sive and shameful weight; and, as if it were too little, 
a rear- guard of ten thousand Swiss must be sought 
for them, and a German regiment, whose acquain- 
tance France is doomed to cultivate to eternity. The 
French know how to count; and finding themselves 
thirty millions of inhabitants united within the same 
borders, they naturally demand how much a few 
thousand men, invited from abroad, can add to their 
real force ! (d). 

There has been time in which states have sought 
foreign troops for certain qualities which appertained 
to them exclusively; thus, the lansquenets, the Eng- 
lish archers, the French gens d^arms, the Swiss in- 
fantry were in request, as, among the ancients, the 
Cretan slingers, and Numidian cavalry were much 
sought after. But, the French have ^sufficiently 
shewn that they had no need of succours, ^r of mas- 
ters; and that, on the contrary, they could serve for 
both upon many occasions. Besides, in our own 
times, there prevails very nearly a military equality 



272 

between all nations: and the cannon has placed all 
upon a level. 

On seeing France filled with veterans, struggling 
with the wants of fortune and the weariness of inac- 
tiviiv, their brethren who have so often admired their 
exploits, cannot but resent with great emotion, that 
posts they have filled so well should be occupied 
by others. 

The Swiss army is too numerous for a state of 
peace, and too costly for the finances. 

Under Napoleon, a Swiss army was but a grain of 
sand, lost in the armed mass of which he disposed; 
incessantly occupied in war, France was ignorant 
even of its existence, because, she did not perceive 
it in the interior. 

But, as things are now, it is a real army of the in- 
terior, in which every Frenchman beholds an army 
of compression. In fact, how is it possible to consi- 
der them in any other light than as men who are 
strangers to the affections of France; understanding 
her interests, no better than her language; executing 
with rudeness, orders given with severity; and ever 
ready to signalize their fidelity, at the expense of 
French liberty! The use for which they seem re- 
served, is sufficiently indicated by a thousand indis- 
cretions of men, who appear impatient to see them 
employed with promptitude and severity, and desig- 
nate them as on arsenal erected arainst the nation. 
Hence much hatred and umbrage; which cannot be 
charged fiith injustice. 

Unfortunate events sometimes raise walls of sepa- 
ration between men, and dissolve ties, which time 
had cemented. It is a wise and prudent policy, not 



273 

to precipitate the rnqment of reconciliation; for in 
this case, hands are more surely reconciled, than 
hearts, and the employment of the first is not safe, 
while the second arc still ulcerated. 

Honourable titles appertain, without doubt, to 
foreign corps; but this is a question of rights, — not 
of titles, it is a question of national rights, and of na- 
tional property. If glory gave rights to nations over 
each other, who would be independent at home? and 
the French would surely have more right to guard 
the Swiss, than the Swiss can have to guard France. 
Some persons are not yet weary of repeating that, 
although England can dispense with foreign troops, 
it is otherwise with France; as the same personages 
maintain that England is well adapted for a good 
constitution, but that France is not: we may postpone 
answering them till they shall have proved that thirty 
millions of Frenchmen, are of less worth than eigh- 
teen millions of Englishmen; that honour and justice 
may be due to the one, and not to the other; and in 
fine, that there are two geometries, the one English 
and the other French. 

Two things follow from these considerations:^ 

1. That the question of the introduction of a corps 
of permanent foreign troops, appertains to the consti- 
tutional system. 

2. That tlie evacuation of France by foreigners, 
seems to be the most seasonable moment to examine 
it; and that this evacuation will not be complete, until 
the retreat of the Swiss; a retreat pressed from no 
motives of hatred on the part of those v>'ho demand 
it; but which implies merely, 1. A return to the con- 
stitutional system, that every people has a right to 



274 

establish and maintain. II. A return to the law of 
nations, which is the safe- guard of all, because it 
closes equally against all the doors of their neigh- 
bours, and causes each to be independent at home; 
which, assimilates the state of each nation to that of 
each family, for nations are only larger families, and 
govern themselves by the same laws, which regulate 
private families. The principle is the same; the only 
difference is the scale upon which it is applied. 

Note {d). 

In the preceding note, it has been said that, " the 
constitutions of the greater part of the states of Eu- 
rope, have been founded upon the Code of Conquest:^' 
An Italian author, not so well known, in this country, 
as some who have treated the same subject without 
equal simplicity, gravity, exactness, or attraction, 
gives the following account of our origin; and the 
foundation of the Code of Independence. America, 
and especially some parts of it, having been discov- 
ered by the genius and by the intrepidity of Italians, 
received at various times as into a place of asylum 
the men whom political, or religious disturbances 
had driven from their own countries in Europe; they 
postponing the endearments of country and natal air 
to the security these distant, and desert regions pre- 
sented to their minds. 

Here they exerted themselves with admirable dex- 
terity, and fortitude, according to the custom of those 
whom the fervour of opinions agitates, and stimulates, 
in subduing the wild beasts, dispersing or destroying 
pernicious or importunate insects, repressing and 
bridling the barbarous and ferocious tribes that inha- 



275 

bited this new world; draining the marshes, controll- 
ing the course of rivers, clearing the forests, furrowing 
a virgin soil, and committing to its bosom new and 
unaccustomed seeds, and thus prepared for them- 
selves a climate less rude and hostile to human na- 
ture; more secure and more commodious habitations; 
more salubrious food, with some of the conveniences 
and enjoyments proper to civilized life. This multi- 
tude of emigrants departing principally from England 
in the time of the last Stuarts landed in that part of 
northern America which extends from the forty fifth 
to the thirty second degree of north latitude, and there 
founded the colonies of Massachusetts, of Newhamp- 
shire, of Connecticut, and of Rhode Island, which 
acquired the general name of New England; and at 
successive epochs, those of Virginia,* of New York, 
of Pennsylvania, of Delaware, of New Jersey, of Ma- 
ryland, of the two Carolinas, North and South, and 
of Georgia. Nor must it be understood that because 
they departed from the land in which they were bom, 
to seek in foreign regions a better condition of life, 
they abandoned their country on terms of enmity, dis- 
solving every tie of early attachment; but that, on the 
contrary, besides the customs, the habits, the usages, 
and the manners, of their common country, they took 
with them privileges conceded by the royal authority, 
whereby their laws were constituted upon the model 
of those of England; more or less conformed to a li- 
beral and enlarged government, or to one more re^ 
stricted, according to the character or authority of the 
princes who granted them ; and also according to the 
greater or less authority which the people, by means 

* Virginia was founded, as is known, a few years earlier than Massachusetts. 



276 

of their organ the parliament were found to possess; 
for in those times of civil and religious discord, when 
English blood was shed so profusely, these things 
often varied surprisingly; thus each province or colo- 
ny had both an assembly of persons elected by the 
people, which under certain limitations exercised the 
authority of parliament, and a governor who under 
certain restrictions also, exercised the power of the 
king, and represented him to the eyes of the colonies. 
To this was added the trial, which is called, by Jury, 
not only in criminal matters, but also in civil causes-; 
a thing of the highest importance, and corresponding 
precisely with the Judicial System of England. 

But in point of religion they enjoyed even greater la- 
titude than in their parent country itself; not retaining 
the hierarchy, or system of ecclesiastical government 
and dignity established in England ; having even bit- 
terly opposed it, and this contest having been the pri- 
mary and principal occasion which had inclined them 
to this long and perilous peregrination. 

It can, therefore, excite no surprise that this gene- 
ration of men should, not only have had their minds 
imbued with the maxims which constitute the basis 
and principles of the English constitution, but that, 
not content with this, they should have been disposed 
to establish a mode of government more liberal, and 
a liberty more entire. Nor that their minds should 
have been inspired with the fervour, which is naturally 
kindled in the hearts of men by obstacles which op- 
pose their religious and political opinions, and still 
mbre by the privations and persecution they have 
experienced on their account. 

And how should this ardour, and this excitement 



277 

of exasperated minds have been appeased in the vast 
solitudes of America, where the amusements and the 
diversions of Europe were unknown; where their 
continual occupation in manual toils must have ren- 
dered their bodies like steel, and their minds invinci- 
bly resolute? If in England they had been averse to 
the royal prerogative, how, as to this, should their 
opinions have been changed in America, where none, 
or few vestiges were seen of the royal presence or 
splendour? where the same avocation being common 
to all, that of cultivating the earth, must of necessity 
have created in all the opinion, and the love of a com- 
mon equality? They encountered exile in times when 
the war raged most fiercely in their native countrj'" 
between the king and the people, the latter contend- 
ing for the right to resist the will of the prince, when- 
ever he should usurp their liberty; and also for that 
of changing the succession to the royal crown. These 
rights were believed by the colonies; and hoAV should 
they have been refuted; finding themselves, without 
the present protection of royal authority, to lead a 
tranquil and happy life in their new country, although 
in a state of infant, and scarcely yet organized so- 
ciety? The laws observed, justice administered, the 
magistrates respected, — offences rare or unknown; 
persons, property, and honour, protected from all vio- 
lation? They believed it the unalienable right of every 
English subject, whether freeman, or freeholder, not 
to give his property without his own consent; that 
only the house of commons, as the representative of 
the English people, had the right to grant their money 
to the crown; that taxes are free gifts of the people 
to those who govern them; that princes are bound to 

pp 



278 

exercise their authority and employ the public treasure 
for ihe sole benefit and use of the community. Now, 
this right the colonists had taken with them; since 
the privileges of Englishmen could not be forfeited 
by distance, or change of climate; and since they had 
left the kingdom with consent and with privileges 
from the royal authority; since this same right, not to 
give their own money without their own consent, had 
been solemnly recognised by the government in char- 
ters granted to many of the colonies; and since as- 
semblies or courts had been established in eveiy 
colony that they might be enabled to investigate, and 
superintend the employment of the public money. 
And how should the colonies have renounced such a 
right; they who derived their subsistence from the 
American soil, not bought or given by others, but 
acquired and possessed by themselves, having been 
the first to occupy, to cultivate, and fill it with useful 
and productive seeds? Every thing, on the contrary, 
in English America, tended to unprecedented free- 
dom in social life, every thing appeared to favour, and 
incline towards civil liberty; every thing looked to- 
wards national independence. The Americans, for the 
most part, were not only protestants, but protestants 
against protestantism itself, and sided with those who, 
in England, are called dissenters; for, besides not ac- 
knowledging as protestants, any authority in the affair 
of religion vdiose decision is a rule of faith without 
other examination, and claiming to be, of themselves, 
by the light of natural reason alone, sufficient judges 
of religious dogmas, by opposing and bitterly con- 
demning the heirarchy, and names of ecclesiastical 
dignity, they had divested themselves of all that de- 



279 

ference and respect which men naturally feel for the 
opinions of those who are constituted in eminent sta- 
tions, respectable on account of the honours which 
are usually paid them; and commanding attention by 
the wealth and magnificence which are seen to sur- 
round them. The intellects of the Americans being 
therefore perfectly free upon this topic, they exercised 
also the same liberty of thought upon other subjects 
unconnected with religion, and especially on that of 
government; an investigation with which they had 
made themselves extremely conversant during their 
residence in their original country. In the colonies, 
lawyers abounded more than in any other country; 
who, as they are accustomed to distil the essence of 
subtilty, are commonly, in a country governed by an 
absolute prince the most efficacious advocates of his 
power; and in a free country the most useful defen- 
ders of liberty. Thus had arisen among the Ameri- 
cans an almost universal acquaintance with tlie acute 
disquisitions which appertain to the professions of 
theology and of law; discussions which often gene- 
rate in the human intellect obstinacy, and pride of 
opinion; and though long their discourses concerning 
political and civil hberty, they always believed that 
more might be said. And, as polite literature and 
liberal studies had already made very considerable 
advances in America, they were enabled to season 
these disquisitions with the graces of a florid elocu- 
tion; which, while on the one hand, it fascinated and 
flattered the supporters of these opinions, on the other 
it served to enforce them, and to impress them more 
indelibly on the minds of the auditors. The republi- 
can maxims became a common doctrine; the memory 



280 

of the puritans, and of those who in the sanguinary 
contentions of England, had espoused the cause of 
the people and thus encountered death, was immor- 
talized. These were their apostles, these their mar- 
tyrs. Of these, of their virtues, of their achieve- 
ments, of their unhappy, and, to the eyes of the Ame- 
ricans, so honourable exit, the rising generation heard 
their fathers continually discourse. 

If, before the revolution, the portrait of the king 
was usually seen in every house, it was not less fre- 
quent also to find on either side of it, the effigies of 
those who in the times of Charles I. sacrificed their 
lives to defend, what they considered, English liber- 
ty. No language can express with what exultation 
they had received the news of the victories of the 
republicans in England; nor with what grief they 
heard of the restoration of the monarchy in the per- 
son of Charles II. Thus their inclinations and prin- 
ciples were equally in opposition to the English state 
and church; and though naturally moderate, and 
guarded, yet expressions frequently escaped them 
which manifested the deepest detestation for the poli- 
tical and religious establishments of their common 
mother. Whoever courted popular favour indulged 
both himself and his hearers by inveighing against 
these; on the contrary, the heirarchists, and such as 
favoured England, whose number was never great, 
were discredited. But all things, particularly in New 
England, concurred to keep alive the germes of these 
propensities and opinions. The colonies had few 
books, but they were in the hands of all, and mostly 
treated on political subjects, or transmitted the his- 
tory of persecutions sustained by their ancestors the 



581 

puritans. These having been persecuted in their an- 
cient country, for their opinions in matters of religion 
or of government with intrepid dehberation had cho- 
sen to abandon it; and traversing an immense oceaii^ 
had taken refuge in the most distant and iijhospitable 
regions to be enabled freely and publicly to profes? 
them; for so noble an object they had sacrificed ;?^ 
the accommodations and delights of that genial clin^ 
where they were born, and educated; and what toi . 
what fatigues, what perils, did they not encouni::i 
upon these new and savage shores? All things hid 
opposed them; their bodies were unaccustomed lO 
the extremes of cold in winter, or of heat in summer, 
both excessive in the climate of America; the land 
covered with forests, and little of it habitable; the 
soil rude and reluctant; the air pestilential; an untinic- 
ly death had carried off most of the first founders; 
and those who had survived the contagion, and othei 
calamities, to secure their infant establishment lu,d 
been forced to combat the natives, a ferocious raor,. 
and exasperated, as might have been expected :<[ 
seeing a foreign people, now seen for the first tir 
and never before heard of, come to appropriate 
country of which they had so long been the sole 
cupants, and masters. The colonists, by their forti- 
tude and courage, had, step by step, at length over- 
come all these impediments; which result, if on the 
one hand, it procured them greater tranquillity and a 
better condition of life, on the other it inspired greater 
assurance and self-confidence, with an elevation of 
sentiments not often paralleled. Also as the prosper- 
ous or adverse events which a generation of men have 

shared together, and the recollections which attend 

ft 



282 

them, have a singular tendency to unite their minds, 
their affections, and their sympathies, so the Ame- 
ricans were bound to each other, not only by the ties 
which reciprocally attach individuals of the same na- 
tion by the identity of language, of laws, of climate, 
of customs, but also by those which arise from a 
common participation in all the vicissitudes which a 
people may sustain; whence they presented the image 
of these congregations of individuals who live not 
only subject to the laws of the general society of which 
they are members, but also acknowledge certain par- 
ticular and appropriate rules or statutes to which they 
have voluntarily pledged their obedience; and which 
are wont to produce, besides an uniformity of opi- 
nions, also a common zeal, and enthusiasm. 

Nor is it unworthy to be remarked, that the state 
of society in the American colonies rendered the in- 
habitants averse to every species of superiority, and 
inclined them to liberty. Here, was but one class of 
men. The mediocrity of their condition, did not 
invite the nobles of Europe to visit their shores; 
riches, and hereditary honours were unknown amongst 
them. 

Whence no vestige remained of feudal servitude. 
These causes were of a nature to produce a general 
opinion, that all men are by nature equal; and the in- 
habitants of America would have found it difficult to 
persuade themselves that they owed their lands, and 
their civil rights — to the munificence of princes. 

Few had heard mention of Magna Charta; and 
those, who were conversant with the history of that 
important period of the English revolution in which 
this compact was confirmed, deemed it rather a 



283 

solemn acknowledgment by the king of England, of 
the rights of the people, than any concession. As 
they referred to heaven the protection which had con- 
ducted them, through so many perils, to a land 
where they had finally found that repose which in 
their mother country they had sought in vain; and 
as they owed to its beneficence the harvests of their 
exuberant fields, the only and the genuine source of 
their riches; so, not from the concessions of the Icing of 
Great Britain^ but from the bounty^ and infinite cle- 
mency of the king of the universe, did they derive 
every right; these opinions in the minds of a religious 
and devout people were likely to have deep, and tena- 
cious roots. 

From the vast extent of the provinces occupied, and 
the abundance of vacant lands, every colonist was, or 
easily might have been, at the same time a proprie- 
tor, farmer and cultivator. 

Living, and taking delight in a country life, under 
their own eyes, from their own grounds, and often 
by their own hands, they beheld all things necessary 
for human subsistence spring up, grow, prosper and 
arrive at maturity; and thus found themselves free 
from all dependance or subjection: and individual 
liberty is a powerful incentive to civil independence. 
Every one might hunt, fowl, and fish at his pleasure 
without fear of possible injury to others; banditti and 
poachers were, therefore, unknown in America. 
Their parks and reservoirs were boundless forests, 
vast, and frequent lakes, magnificent rivers, and 
waters flowing in streams of every name, with an in- 
finite sea, subject to no restriction, and, more than 
any other, abounding in every species of the finny 
race. 



284 

As they lived dispersed in the fields, one here, and 
another there, mutual affection was thus increased 
between members of the same family, and finding 
their pleasures in the domestic circle, they had no in- 
clination to seek them abroad, or in the resorts of 
idleness, where men, too often contract the vices 
which terminate in dependance, and habits of ser- 
vility. 

The greater part of the colonists being proprietors 
and cultivators of land, they lived continually upon 
their farms; merchants, manufacturers, and me- 
I chanics, composed not a fifth part of the entire popu- 
lation. Cultivators of the earth depend only on Pro- 
vidence, and their own industry; while other occupa- 
tions, on the contrary, are compelled, more or less, 
to assume and accustom themselves to servile man- 
ners, in order to humour the caprices of those by 
whom they prosper; and thus the great proportion of 
the first class, with respect to the others, must of ne- 
cessity have produced in these colonies a description 
of independent men, who unaccustomed to stop at any 
obstacles but those presented by the very nature of 
things, could not fail to resent with animation, and 
oppose with indignant energy, every curb which hu- 
man authority might attempt to impose. 

The inhabitants of the colonies were also exempt 
and out of danger as it were, from ministerial seduc- 
tion, the seat of government being at such a distance 
that, far from having hg^ndled, they had never even 
heard of this glitteri?ig rhetoric. It was not, there- 
fore, customary among them to corrupt, and be cor- 
rupted: the magistrates were few, and the means at 
tlieir disposal too limited to furnish temptation. 



285 

This love towards the sovereign and their ancieni 
country, which the first colonists might have retainecl 
in their new establishment, gradually diminished in 
the minds of their descendants in America; where 
one generation succeeding another, at every stage 
removed them further from their original stock; and 
when the revolution commenced, the history of which 
is preparing, the inhabitants of the English colonies 
were, for the most part, the third, fourth, and even 
the fifth generation from the original colonists who 
had left England, and transplanted themselves in the 
new world. At such a distance, the relations of con- 
sanguinity were enfeebled by desuetude, or had little 
to recommend them; and the recollections of their 
ancestors, though written in their memories, was near- 
ly effaced from their hearts. 

Commerce, which has power to unite and conciliate 
friendship between the inhabitants of the most distant 
countries, was not in the early periods of the colonies, 
so frequent as to produce these effects between the 
inhabitants of England and of Amerr-X^. 

The most of the colonists had heard nothing of 
England, excepting that it was a distant region from 
which their ancestors had been wickedly and cruelly 
expelled or hunted away ; since they had been forced 
to seek refuge in the deserts and forests of wild Ame- 
rica, inhabited only by savage men and prowling 
beasts, or venomous and horrible serpents. 

The distance of a government diminishes its force, 
either because in the absence of the splendour, and 
magnificence of the throne, men yield obedience only 
to its power, unsupported by the invitations of respect 
and of illusion; or because its agents, entrusted with 



286 

the execution of the laws in distant countries, are al- 
lowed a larger discretion; and tlius the people govern- 
ed is inspired with the hope of being able to escape 
their restraints. 

What therefore could have been the force of the 
English government in America, when it is considered 
that between the two countries lies an ocean three 
thousand miles in breadth; and that entire months 
must transpire between the date of an order and its 
execution? It should be added also that, except in 
time of war, standing armies, this powerful engine of 
coertion, were not numerous in England, and still 
more inconsiderable in America; it being also contra- 
ry to the laws to maintain them: it follows. of necessity, 
that as the instruments of constraint on the part of the 
government were feeble, so there must have arisen, 
and hourly increased in the minds of the Americans 
the hope, and with it the desire to throw off the yoke 
of English superiority. 

All these considerations refer more especially to the 
condition of tlii" oriental provinces of English Ame- 
rica. But in those of the south, the lands being more 
fertile and the colonists thereby enjoying a greater 
affluence, they must also have been more at liberty 
to consult their own will, and less dependant by na- 
tural wants on that of others. Nor can this be thousjht 
to have enervated, or vitiated their minds; but, on 
the contrary, as they resided continually on their 
plantations, far from the luxury and seductions of ci- 
ties; as they were frugal, and moderate in all their 
desires, the gTeat abundance of things necessary to 
human life must have contributed to render their bo- 
dies more vigorous, and their minds more impatient 
of all subjection. 



287 

In these provinces, also, the slavery of the Blacks^ 
which was in use, though it may seem at first a strange 
assertion, rendered liberty more dear to the white 
population. Having before their eyes continually a 
living example of the wretchedness to which man is 
reduced by slavery, they better knew, and could 
more justly appreciate, the liberty they enjoyed; this 
liberty they considered not a right but a franchise, and 
privilege; and as it is usual for men, when their own 
interests and passions are concerned, to judge partial- 
ly, and with intellectual blindness, the colonists im- 
patiently supported the superiority of the English 
government, and its pretensions, as tending to reduce 
them to a state approaching, or similar to that of their 
own slaves : thus detesting, when applied to them- 
selves, what they practised upon others. 

The inhabitants of the colonies, and especially 
those of New England, enjoyed not merely the sha- 
dow, but even the very substance of the English 
constitution : for, in this respect, little was wanting, 
to their entire independence. They elected their 
own magistrates, and paid them ; every thing relating 
to internal administration was in their own hands ; 
and the sole evidence of their dependance on the 
mother country, consisted in this : that they could 
not enact laws or statutes contrary to the letter, or 
intention of the English laws; that the king might 
withhold his sanction, essential to the validity of the 
deliberations of their assemblies; and that they were 
subject to such regulations and restrictions of com- 
merce, as the Parliament should judge necessary, and 
conducive to the general good of the empire. 

These restrictions, however, were rather nominal 



288 

than effectual; for the king very rarely exercised the 
right of Veto: and, on the other hand, they dexter- 
ously evaded these rules and restrictions, by means 
of contraband traffic. The provincial assemblies, also, 
were abundantly free; and perhaps less dependant 
than the parliament of England itself: for in them 
were no ministers prompt with the daily whisper; 
and the democratic zeal and ardour, was under no 
restraint, or little less than none ;. since the governors 
who intervened on the part of Royalty had too little 
credit to control it; as they received their salaries, 
not from the crown, but the provinces themselves ; 
and, in some instances, were elected, also, by the suf- 
frages of the inhabitants. 

The religious zeal, which prevailed even to excess 
in the colonies, and chiefly among the inhabitants of 
New England, maintained the purity of their manners; 
frugality, temperance, and chastity, were ordinary 
virtues in the midst of this people. There were no 
examples among them of wives devoted to the toilette, 
of husbands to ebriety, or of sons to the walks of 
pleasure. The ministers of a severe religion were 
respected, and revered; for they presented the exam- 
ple of the virtues they preached. Here time was no 
burden; divided between rural occupations, domestic 
parties, and prayers and thanksgivings addressed 
and returned for innumerable blessings, to that God 
by whose bounty the seasons were made propitious, 
and the earth to smile on their labours with beauty 
and abundance. And if we add further, that the in- 
habitants of New England, after vanquishing the first 
obstacles, found themselves in a prolific, and health- 
ful region, it will appear less surprising, that in the 



289 

course of a century, the population of the Americau 
colonjgfs should have multiplied so rapidly, as that a 
few, unfortunate families driven by adverse fortune 
to these distant shores, should have become in this 
short period — a great and poxverful nation. For it 
should be recollected, that American fathers were 
exempt from these inquietudes which daily and al- 
most hourly perplex and goad the minds of European 
parents, concerning the subsistence, and future esta- 
blishment of their offspring. 

Thus the natural wish to enjoy the endearments of 
connubial life, encountered in America no opposition 
from the restraints of a naiTow fortune; but, on the 
contrary, the birth of a son was an event not only 
flattering to paternal love, but also prosperous for the 
interests of a whole family; for in this immensity of 
uncultivated lands, it could not be doubted that the 
hew infant when arrived at the proper age, by reduc- 
ing other tracts to a state of cultivation, would pro- 
cure for himself and his parents, a new support; and, 
therefore, the more children, the more instruments of 
competence and ease for all. Whence it is plain 
that, in America, nature, climate, civil, and religious 
institutions, and even the interests of families, all 
tended to people it, with robust and virtuous fathers 
=— '^vith swarms of vigorous and spirited sons. 

Storia della Gnerra delP Independenza degli 
tStati Uniti d^ America. 

Da Carlo Bott/.. 

THR END 



a. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



021 550 539 A 



